Search results

U.S. international corporations are experiencing high rates of expatriate failures. The price tag of these failures is costly to both the corporations involved as well as the failing expatriates. Conceptualization of expatriates' roles in the host country's social system and involving the patriate in the HR processes are key to solving the problem.

This article aims to examine the process of mentoring and career development within the global arena. Although much has been written on the adjustment of expatriates, relatively little research has examined the exchange of information and knowledge among workers in different countries via the mentoring process.

A model is offered of how an expatriate progresses through learning cycles aided by multiple mentors. Multiple mentoring contributes to the individual's career development and facilitates the development of organizational tacit and embedded knowledge.

Using Hall and Chandler's conceptualization of multiple learning cycles over the life span, it is proposed that the expatriate cycles through a learning cycle over the course of an extended assignment. These learning cycles are shorter than the traditional career stages, often lasting two to four years – similar to the length of an expatriate assignment. It is suggested that the stages of an expatriate assignment – predeparture, on‐site and repatriation – represent a learning cycle. A successful expatriate experience is more likely to occur if multiple mentors in various locations are available – as needed – to offer information and career support to the expatriate.

With increasing globalization and rapid technological advances, mentoring relationships that cross national and other types of boundaries have increased, yet theory has not kept pace. A framework is provided for the further examination of expatriate careers and how mentoring can increase career outcomes and knowledge transfer.

Although the sabbatical leave is an integral part of academic life, there has been relatively little empirical, theory-driven research of the process. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the limited research on faculty sabbaticals with the careers literature to offer a new approach for the study of this important tool for faculty development.

A review of the empirical studies on faculty sabbaticals was performed and used in conjunction with the kaleidoscope career model (KCM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to develop a model to guide future research.

The decision to take a sabbatical is complex and may have long-lasting implications for an individual's career. It is important to examine how factors that impact the perceived feasibility of the sabbatical (e.g. organization, country social norms) and desirability (e.g. need for authenticity, balance and challenge) influence the decisions, goals and outcomes of the sabbatical.

The use of the KCM, the TPB and the careers literature provides a theoretical foundation to study faculty sabbaticals as a distinct event in an individual's career development.

The proposed framework can be used by faculty members to determine the feasibility and desirability of taking a sabbatical as well as what factors which may encourage or limit sabbatical opportunities.

This conceptual paper uses a careers lens to provide a theory-driven framework which can be used to conduct much needed research on faculty sabbaticals.

Organizational agility may be considered the integration of organizational processes, characteristics, and members with advanced technology. Agility enhances the organization’s ability to provide high quality products and services and is, therefore, crucial to organizational competitiveness. Integrates the production/operations, general management, and sociotechnical views to develop a model of organizational agility. Briefly reviews the literature in these fields and offers a model of agility based on suppliers, organizational members, and customers united through information technology. It is proposed that these connections rest on a foundation of leadership, organization culture, and employee reward systems that create a relationship between people and technology. These relationships include involving people in decision making, creating process and product quality by offering enriched jobs, training in technology, and providing a reward system which reinforces agility‐promoting efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the topics published in the journal in the five-year period from 2005 to 2009.

A qualitative examination of content by year identifies prevalent themes.

The beginning and ending of the time period demonstrate continued interest in major figures of our field and the context of their thinking. Quality, excellence and continuous improvement were recurrent topics as were those of business in society, ethics and social responsibility. The value of historical analysis with suggested methodologies for further study was included.

The paper is limited to the topical papers within this five-year timeframe and a qualitative analysis of themes. Fewer than expected papers were published on leadership and international subjects given their important to the field.

Aspiring authors may find the historical background for the current topics of entrepreneurship, quality, ethics and social responsibility convenient. Helpful advice from experts about how to study management history is highlighted. Cross-cultural and international historical linkages on themes and concepts are identified as areas in need of additional research.

The social construction of studying and teaching history is discussed. The context in which major writers lived and events occurred is recognized as a major factor in interpreting situations.

The paper reviews over 100 articles to categorize the historical origins of current and recurring topics into major themes. Papers are organized by topic, person or event into a chart by year.

This special issue seeks to examine mentoring relationships and offer new perspectives and frameworks, suggesting exciting avenues for future research on mentoring and career development.

In the last two decades, the workplace has been dramatically transformed. Individuals traditionally had careers entrenched in organizations, relying on the paternalistic firm for career development. Increasingly now, individuals are enacting careers outside organizational boundaries, defining career success on their own terms rather than by the organizational measures of salary and rank. Rapid technological change and globalization have intensified the decoupling of individual careers from organizations, putting more emphasis on individuals for their own career development and creating an even greater need for mentoring.

Although much research has been done on the impact of mentoring on subjective and objective career success, there are still many unexamined and under‐explored aspects of mentoring. This collection of ten articles tackles some of these areas, providing new insights and offering new avenues for research and practice.

These articles are authored by individuals from a variety of disciplines (e.g. organizational behavior, psychology, health care), and countries (e.g. USA, UK, Nigeria), with each article bringing a unique lens to the study of mentoring and careers. Individually, each article makes a contribution to the better understanding of how mentoring has evolved and is enacted today. Together, this collection of articles provides important insights that it is hoped encourage even further research into the complexities of developmental relationships and their impact on career development.

The major purpose of this paper is to examine how gender differences impact the enactment of careers. An additional goal is to examine whether, as suggested by recent conceptualizations, careers are indeed becoming more boundaryless.

This paper is based on the results of two in‐depth qualitative studies (n=52; n=27).

Two major patterns were found that describe the careers of professionals in the contemporary workplace. One pattern is called the alpha career pattern: over the life span, people with this pattern first focus on challenge, then authenticity, and then balance. The second pattern is called the beta career pattern: over the life span, people with this pattern first focus on challenge, then balance, and then authenticity.

This paper offers a framework that HR managers and other organizational leaders can use to increase the authenticity, balance and challenge experienced by their employees in order to enhance organizational effectiveness.

This paper addresses the numerous calls for the development of a model to explain the complexities of women's careers as well as to recognize gender differences in career enactment. It was found that, in general, men followed the alpha career pattern while women followed the beta career pattern. However, a limited number of women had career experiences that were more consistent with the alpha career pattern more closely aligned with men while some younger men consciously developed more family‐driven beta patterns.