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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue which brings together six papers exploring aspects of intercultural competence in the international business arena.

This overarching paper contextualizes the theme and introduces the selected papers which offer both theoretical and empirical insights.

The findings in this paper vary according to the core theme of each of the six contributions.

The papers in the special issue call attention to competences required for operating in the intercultural arena and offer a potential platform for developmental interventions.

The paper highlights how, combined, the papers explore new avenues of enquiry in the intercultural competence domain and showcase cross national theoretical and empirical work.

The demographics and the legal and political characteristics of the French environment impact strongly on HR practices in France. Career management, recruitment, training and compensation are chosen in order to highlight some French specificities. An evaluation of the HR function indicates that it should move towards a strategic role. A move towards people management is also perceived. At the beginning of the 2000s, HRM in France exhibits five main trends summed up in this article.

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 what attracts individuals to live in a South East Asian city. It uses a boundaryless career approach that is interested in how people cross-traditional career boundaries, including those related to country and location barriers. Going beyond an individual and organizational view, a more extensive model of location decisions is developed that incorporates broad macro-factor career drivers.

A large-scale qualitative study explored individual, organizational, political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, legal, natural and general drivers to live in the city. The authors interviewed 43 individuals who had moved to the city from abroad, were born in the city and still lived there or who were born in the city but had moved to another foreign city.

Many macro-contextual factors – i.e. day-to-day regulatory stability and transparency, economic growth, friendliness and meritocracy, safety and a good, clean environment – were seen as attractive by all three groups. People who had left the city raised some specific criticism regarding the vibrancy, freedom and creativity of thought.

The study focused on highly skilled individuals who most often had experience in living in different cities to get more reflective views. However, this restricted the generalizability. The findings nuance the understanding of boundaryless careers.

The research expands the normally used attraction factors and develops a broader framework of city attractiveness drivers. The emerging picture can be used by the city administration to manage its global attractiveness while increasing non-regulatory “stickiness” to retain talent.

The research has social implications with respect to cross-border boundaryless careers and talent acquisition, management and retention strategies.

The research expands the macro-contextual discussion and goes beyond the dominant focus on individuals and organizations when investigating boundaryless careers. The study uses an innovative method as it does not only interview foreign expatriates but also two further, more neglected groups: local citizens and individuals who had left the city. It develops an extended model of boundaryless location drivers and develops some exemplary propositions.

This paper sheds light on an apparent paradox: managers continue to accept offers of international assignments even though they tend to view them as a risky career move. Based on a review of the literature and a survey of expatriate managers of 20 French and 30 German companies on assignment in 59 countries, the paper examines the nature of the expatriate career concept, the career development implications of international assignments, and the effectiveness of corporate expatriate career management and repatriation systems. Most of the research on the career implications of international assignments has been conducted using the US samples of expatriates. By exploring expatriate career issues in a cross‐national sample of French and German expatriates, this study seeks to yield new and significant insights into whether the emerging concept of boundaryless careers is beginning to take hold in countries other than the US, and whether there are cross‐national differences in the nature of the expatriate career concept. The findings show that many expatriates are frustrated with how their companies manage their international assignments, especially the long‐range planning of their repatriation. However, there are clear differences between the French and German expatriates in terms of repatriation concerns. Despite widespread dissatisfaction in both groups, the German expatriates seem relatively nonchalant regarding their repatriation. This finding can be explained by the fact that the German expatriates are more willing to leave their companies upon return than their French counterparts, thus showing strong evidence of a “boundaryless career” orientation. An important finding is that companies that fail to take an integrated approach to international assignments and do not have effective international career development and repatriation systems, tend to end up with highly dissatisfied managers who, depending on their nationalities, may be quite willing to leave their companies upon repatriation.

The construct of cultural intelligence has recently been introduced to the management literature as an individual difference that may predict effectiveness and a variety of interpersonal behavior in the global business environment. This construct has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross-cultural interactions. However, progress has been limited by the adequacy of existing measures. In this chapter, we describe the development and preliminary validation of a web-based assessment of cultural intelligence based on our conceptualization of cultural intelligence.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the concept of “global management competencies”.

An extensive review of most of the relevant literature on global management competencies was done. By investigating four constructs, i.e. the global mindset, cross‐cultural competence, intercultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence, all related to “global management competencies” the authors made an in‐depth investigation of the contributing organizational behaviour components, the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personality characteristics (the KSAOs), useful for a construct of global management competencies.

A configuration of the above components as an integrative model was developed. This model could serve as the basis for the development of measurement instruments.

The construct of global management competencies, albeit with different labels and in different disguise, has received a lot of attention in the last two decades but has not been conceptualised satisfactorily. This article is an attempt to do so.

The purpose of this research is to examine relationships between emotional intelligence and the four factor model of cultural intelligence – metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ.

Confirmatory factor analyses and hierarchical regression analyses on data from 381 students in Korea are conducted.

The results support discriminant validity of the four factor model of cultural intelligence scale (CQS) in relation to the emotional intelligence (EQ) construct. This study also demonstrates that the EQ factors related to social competence (social awareness and relationship management) explain CQ over and beyond the EQ factors related to self‐competence (self‐awareness, and relationship management). Finally, the results present that specific factors of EQ are related to specific factors of CQ.

The findings of this study demonstrate how CQ and EQ are distinct, but related constructs, which has not been conducted by prior research.

Research on expatriation and global leadership has been characterized by wide variations in defining what constitutes intercultural competence. Greater progress can be achieved if a comprehensive definition of the intercultural competence domain can be established, particularly with regard to the specific context of global leadership. This paper aims to focus on the issues.

The authors conduct an extensive review of the global leadership and expatriation literatures, integrating and synthesizing prior theoretical and empirical efforts to develop a comprehensive domain definition for intercultural competence in the context of global leadership.

The domain of intercultural competence in the context of global leadership comprised three dimensions – perception management, relationship management and self management. Each dimension is characterized by facets that further delineate aspects of intercultural competence.

The domain definition of intercultural competence for global leadership appears to be well supported in prior theoretical and empirical work focusing on expatriation and global leadership; however that work was fragmented in nature. A test of the comprehensive model, i.e. all three dimensions and 17 facets, is called for, as well as the validation of an instrument that measures them.

The paper integrates and synthesizes the extensive body of theoretical and empirical work related to intercultural competence and clearly establishes the content domain, thereby enhancing the efficacy of future theoretical and empirical efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that the level of individuals' intercultural competencies has on their satisfaction, trust and affective commitment and assessment of their work team.

An intercultural competencies classification system is developed in which the cognitive, affective and behavioural intercultural competencies predicted to impact upon individuals' responses toward, and assessments of, their work team are identified. The results of quantitative survey research providing support for the classification system are subsequently described.

Competencies identified as being related to individuals' responses toward, and assessments of, their work team include cognitive complexity, goal orientation, dissimilarity openness, tolerance for ambiguity and emotion, and conflict management skills.

The research provides sound evidence for the important role that intercultural competence plays in facilitating positive individual level outcomes which it is theorised will lead to positive team level outcomes.

The key contribution of the research is the development of an intercultural competencies classification system which ties together in a single but multifaceted framework the intercultural competencies required for employees working in culturally diverse teams.