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The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on how success and failure for international assignments have been defined, and integrate several proposals for these definitions into a multi-dimensional model that considers task performance, relationship building, contextual performance and retention as all being part of how success or failure should be defined. The authors also discuss two proposed pre-requisites for success – absorptive capacity (operationalized at both the individual and the unit levels) and adjustment. The authors conclude by bringing in literature on performance management and how ideas about performance management must also be integrated into the discussion of the success or failure of international assignments.

This paper reviews existing proposals regarding the definition of expatriate success and failure, and proposes a multidimensional model of success based on the past literature. Based on this literature the authors also propose two pre-requisites for success and discuss several requisite KSAOs, as well as some suggestions from the literature on performance management.

The authors argue for a multidimensional model of expatiate success which includes task performance, relationship building, contextual performance and retention as part of what constitutes a successful assignment. The authors also argue that absorptive capacity and adjustment should be considered as pre-requisites for success, and that principles from performance management should be applied to dealing with international assignments.

A more comprehensive definition of success and failure should aid research by providing a better dependent variable, and by leading to research on various aspects of this outcome.

The proposed model and approach can hopefully help practice by clarifying the different dimensions of success and how performance management techniques can be applied to dealing with international assignments.

There has been a lot written about how we should operationalize the success or failure of international assignments. The present paper reviews that literature and integrates a number of ideas and suggestions into a multi-dimensional model which includes information about pre-requisites for success and relevant KSAOs, along with ideas from performance management to help insure the success of these assignments.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the degree of success in international assignments that public relations (PR) practitioners experience and explores the influence of both organizational culture and national culture.

PR practitioners in the USA and South Africa were surveyed.

Results show that there is no difference between PR practitioners from the USA and South Africa with experience in international assignments, in terms of degree of success in international assignments and of level of preparedness for international assignments. It was also found that there is no significant correlation between national culture or organizational culture and the degree of success in international assignments for those respondents with international experience.

The response rate was limited and therefore the results cannot be generalized. Future research would be to further extend this study to include additional countries.

The results support the concept that a PR practitioner with an organic organizational culture and a long‐term orientation of national culture will be better prepared to engage in international assignments than a practitioner with a mechanistic organizational culture and a short‐term orientation of national culture.

This study adds to the literature on international PR practice, and compares the practice in a developing economy, South Africa, to a developed economy, the USA.

The International Human Resource Management literature has paid less attention to the selection of expatriates and the decision-making criteria with regard to such selection, than to issues relating to expatriates’ role, performance, adjustment, success, and failure. Yet, before expatriates commence their assignments, they need to be selected. The purpose of this book chapter is to provide an overview of issues related specifically to expatriate selection. In particular, the chapter traces the chronological development of selection over the last five decades or so, from prior to 1970 until present. The chapter subsequently identifies five expatriate selection criteria that have been applied in regard to traditional international assignments, but are also relevant to alternative assignments.

We begin by reviewing expatriate selection historically and its position within expatriate management based on changing business environments. Then, drawing from over five decades of literature on international assignments, we identify and discuss five organizational, individual, and contextual level criteria for selecting expatriates.

Emphasis on different issues tends to characterize expatriate selection during the various decades since the literature has taken up the topic. The chapter describes those issues, following a chronological perspective. In addition, the chapter organizes the various selection criteria in five clusters: organization philosophy, technical competence, relational abilities, personal characteristics, and spouse and family situation.

While there are studies on expatriate selection, there is more to be understood with regard to the topic. Provided all other expatriation phases are subsequent, if selection is not understood in detail, the foundations of studying phases and processes that take place once expatriates are selected may not be sound. While the scholarly conversations of other expatriate-related issues should continue, the international human resource management literature can absorb more analyses on selection. A better understanding of expatriate selection will assist its better management. The chapter provides a basis for human resource management professionals to be able to map the various criteria for selection, and decide, under particular circumstances, which ones to prioritize and why.

The chapter brings clarity to a topic that has remained less researched when compared to other areas of interest related to expatriates and their international assignments by tracing the historical development of this important phase of the expatriation process. In addition, the chapter organizes a number of selection criteria along five core areas and discusses each of them to gain insights that help explain expatriate selection in greater detail.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new framework for assessing the human resource strategy for international assignment (IA) of managers.

The approach posits the construct of emotional intelligence (EI) as a critical predictor for intercultural adjustment thereby leading to success. A theoretical model and the respective preliminary empirical test of a series of hypotheses pertaining to the relationships between several dimensions of EI, their impact on cross‐cultural adjustment and success of international managers overseas assignments, is presented. Analyses is based on cross sectional data of 67 cases (based on questionnaires), and on 39 cases with rectangular data where both supervisory input and questionnaires were used.

A significant correlation was found between the interpersonal emotional component and specific performance. Thus the capacities of empathy, social responsibility and social relations may predict better performance in the specific characters of IA. Moreover, the correlation between EI and adjustment dimensions showed significantly higher correlations; while cultural adjustment is not correlated with any EI dimensions, interaction fit correlates with all the EI dimensions except for stress management; adjustment at the work place was only correlated with intrapersonal emotional component. The correlation between adjustment variables and success variables shows that cultural adjustment is positively correlated with satisfaction among global managers. Adjustment at work correlates negatively with the wish to terminate the assignment. In other words, those who adjust less well to work show greater interest in terminating their assignment.

Findings are based on the self‐reported questionnaires and should be treated with caution due to the possibilities of “method‐variance”. The findings are based on a small sample of international assigned managers operating within the Latin American theatre.

It is proposed that EI assessment be used in the selection of internationally assigned managers, in addition to the traditional selection criteria in order to improve the predictive ness of the assignee success.

The use of soft skills rather than hard skills as part of the selection decision of expatriates or any other internationally assigned professionals was long debated. In this study, for the first time, EI scores were used to predict cultural adjustment and subsequence success for managers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relative most important antecedent factors related to success in international assignment (IA) in specific context such as Peru. It reviews the full range of individual, organizational and contextual factors associated with success in IA as well as discusses the importance of context in expatriate research. Combined with limited interviews, synthesis is offered and the most relevant determinant factors are identified.

This is a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 45 participants who currently hold IA positions or have broad experience in overseas positions. The interviews were conducted in the English and Spanish languages. A priori coding system classification technique based on a content analysis methodology was administrated for the purpose of analyzing and codifying the interviews.

The findings reveal that a combination of individual, organizational and contextual antecedent factors are relevant for explaining success in IA. However, only nine of the 32 factors were found to be the most determinant to success. In particular, cross-cultural competencies, spouse adjustment, motivational issues, time on assignment, emotional competencies, previous international experience, language fluency and social relational skills, as well as contextual cultural differences and organizational recruitment and selection practices, were found to be the most associated to success in IA. The relative importance of the antecedents are discussed related to the context.

Because of the nature of qualitative design, a single factor may affect the interpretation and generalization of the findings. In addition, the ample and broad conceptualizations and definitions of the antecedent factors examined from different viewpoints may cause theoretical overlapping and cross-over definition biases, which may result in misleading findings. Therefore, the authors encourage future research to continue examining the full range of antecedent factors employing different methodological approaches by integrating context in a more systematic manner.

The paper reviews the implications for IA selection design and process implementation, cross-cultural training and development.

To begin with, this paper fills a need to study the antecedents of IA success and determine their relevance. In particular, and to the best of the knowledge, this is one of the few studies that include multi-level perspective: individual, organizational and contextual factors. This comprehensive approach aids in better understanding of the role and relevance of the respective antecedent factors that leads to success in IA with an aim to integrate context in the equation. Second, the sample consists of expatriates in particularly in Peru which gives information about adjustment of expatriates in Peru.

Retailers have demonstrated mixed results during international expansions. However, home market saturation and the economic climate are forcing more and more retailers to look beyond their borders for revenue. A critical participant in the internationalizing effort is the expatriate manager. Unfortunately the literature is unclear and at times conflicted over how to select and prepare expatriate management for their leadership role. Therefore, this study was designed with the purpose of uncovering various factors which may lead to expatriate retail management success.

Based on the lack of unanimity in the literature this study adopted a qualitative research methodology in order to develop some consensus regarding successful expatriate leadership attributes. Grounded theory was employed utilizing extensive in-depth interviews as the primary data gathering and analysis tools.

A multi-dimensional construct emerged from the data requiring all dimensions to be utilized for a successful retail expatriate assignment. The construct of “Universal Leadership”, is proposed as formative, comprised of reflective sub-dimensions; Ability, Adaptability, Ambassadorship, and Awareness (Self), which we refer to as the Four A's, for successful expatriate management assignments. Several propositions are put forward as suggestions for future research in the use of the universal leadership model for both selection and training of retail expatriate managers.

The study develops a theoretical platform for expatriate leadership success allowing for cultural and business variation. Awareness is introduced as a critical attribute in achieving success as an expatriate success. The universal leadership model proposes attributes beneficial for training and also selection which is critically under examined in the literature.

With globalization and accompanying expatriation becoming a reality for developed countries, including those that have recently arrived in Southeast Asia, this study explored the effects of family and personal characteristics on Singaporeans’ willingness to accept an expat assignment.

Data were collected from a random sample of 191 managers and engineers across a number of organizations in Singapore.

The results indicated that the perception of a negative influence on family members has a negative impact on Singapore engineers and managers intention to accept an international assignment. Further, both need for achievement and perseverance personal characteristics had a positive impact on intention for an international assignment.

The study findings suggest how international human resource manager can provide help to expatriates and their family in dealing with family issues related to expatriation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the variables that influence the international assignment – expatriate learning relationship and the expatriate learning – organizational learning relationship.

The paper contains a literature review of the research on expatriates' learning and organizational learning

The paper provides an integrative framework that identifies the moderating variables that influence both the relationship between the expatriate international assignment and expatriate learning as well as the relationship between expatriate learning and organizational learning. In addition, this framework specifies the process by which the international assignment influences organizational learning and shows that expatriate learning mediates this relationship. Several hypotheses were generated to provide avenues for future investigation.

The paper does not provide an exhaustive set of the moderating variables and does not focus on the interaction between situational and individual differences moderators.

Managers should pay attention to the selection, maintenance and repatriation of expatriates and facilitate the conditions under which expatriate learning and organizational learning can be maximized. To remain competitive, managers should engage in the continuous process of assessing the effectiveness of international assignments in enhancing expatriate and organizational learning.

The present research identifies the conditions that facilitate or hinder expatriate learning and organizational learning as well as the process by which international assignments influence organizational learning. Expatriate learning and organizational learning are critical for the continuous growth and competitive advantage of organizations, and, accordingly, it is imperative to study the factors and the process that influence learning in organizations, especially in response to the increasing popularity of globalization and the pressure to remain competitive.

The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent HR practitioners value and account for international assignments, and to relate these findings to the HRCA context.

The paper draws on data from a quantitative survey among 415 German chemical companies and expert interviews with HR managers from eight chemical companies.

Demand‐driven, flexible approaches to expatriation management are frequent, with a strong reliance on self‐selection by future expatriates. Subsequent career development is often left to chance, depending on current staffing situations. HR managers appreciate the positive effect of overseas assignments on personal development, but often appear to underestimate the long‐term benefits an international assignment can have for the company. Lack of sustainable integration of expatriates' experiences into their work environment marks a serious threat to this investment.

The paper contributes to the discussion on the feasibility of HRCA instruments by introducing an organisational sociology perspective.

Business is no longer limited by national boundaries. The majority of the world's large corporations perform a significant portion of their activities now outside their home countries. As many U.S. firms continue to establish and strengthen their presence overseas, they are also experiencing high failure rates among their international managers. According to a number of recent studies, the rate of failure among American expatriates ranges from 25 percent to 40 percent depending on the location of assignment (Fortune, 1995; McDonald, 1993, and Ralston, Terpstra, Cunniff&Gustafson, 1995). These rates are quite high, particularly when compared to failure rates experienced by European and Japanese international corporations.