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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the rapidly growing body of expatriate teachers in international schools’ as a neglected community of non-corporate expatriates, and presents a research agenda.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for identifying a possible reason for this neglect; the teachers in international schools can be viewed as “middling actors”, caught in a “middle space” of the emergent “business expatriate” concept, between the discussion about corporate expatriates and precariat workers.

This paper reveals that the body of expatriate teachers in international schools is growing rapidly, and is forecast to reach up to 800,000 by 2026, yet the literature still largely neglects their realities of everyday life as an expatriate.

The concept of an international school defies consensus agreement, and this paper uses data that is academically debatable in its accuracy. The figures should be viewed as the maximum amount.

The concept of the “middling actor” can be further developed, and international schools offer a rich area of research for expatriate researchers.

Teachers in international schools have escaped discussion as expatriates yet warrant greater attention. This paper introduces the concept of “middling” and the “middling actor” as new, yet potentially useful, sociological concepts. The concept of the “middling actor” within the broad “business expatriate” concept can be developed in many different ways and needs further discussion and theorization.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new insights into religious expatriates’ cultural intelligence, adaptation and the role of motivation. Drawing mainly from the theory of intelligence (Sternberg, 1999) and theory of self-determination (Deci and Ryan, 2000), the study posits that cultural intelligence of a religious expatriate is positively and significantly related to his or her psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Moreover, the study hypothesizes that intrinsic motivation, as a type of motivation, plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between cultural intelligence and adaptation (both psychological and sociocultural).

In total, 110 religious expatriates from various religious communities were surveyed. They were asked to rate their cultural intelligence, intrinsic motivation and adaptation (i.e. psychological and sociocultural).

The results demonstrate that cultural intelligence is positively and significantly related to both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Furthermore, results show that intrinsic motivation, as a type of motivation, moderates the relationship between cultural intelligence and adaptation (both psychological and sociocultural).

The study contributes to the limited studies on non-corporate expatriation focusing mainly on religious expatriation. In addition, it adds value by generating new insights into the importance not only of cultural intelligence but also of intrinsic motivation in ensuring high levels of psychological and sociocultural adaptation. It further offers a number of practical insights that can be relevant for both corporate and non-corporate expatriates.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors informing spousal global mobility decisions within the context of sporting expatriation. Findings contribute to the non-corporate global mobility literature as well as providing an empirical enhancement to the family relatedness of work decisions framework.

In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews gave voice to 21 spouses of professional sailors who have experienced both trailing their spouse and staying behind.

Access to empathetic social support, the potential impact on children, and the spouse’s career were all found to influence the spouse’s dynamic global mobility decision making.

The study is limited by the cross-sectional nature of the research. Future longitudinal research into the impact of spousal preferences would identify the on-going effect of their decision(s) to relocate or to stay behind.

Providing organisations with an understanding of the familial issues their global talent may factor into their work mobility decisions will allow them to implement appropriate family-focussed support, irrespective of the choice to engage, or not engage, in global mobility.

By grounding the study in the under-researched sporting arena, the author contributes to the emerging non-corporate expatriate conversation. Furthermore, the family relatedness of work-related decisions framework was found to provide a useful conceptual foundation for understanding decision making in an international context.

Drawing on an institutional perspective, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on mobility patterns and assignment situations in 15 German non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the public diplomacy and international aid sectors. Its aim is to explore how differing field logics are related to international staffing practices in the different sectors.

A multiple case study approach was employed, based on 51 expert interviews and corresponding document analysis.

The findings display similarities between NPOs of the same sector but differences between the sectors with regard to numbers of “expensive” expatriates and the assignment situation; this is a result of the intersection of different institutional pressures in the respective fields.

The article is based on a limited number of cases in the German context and does not allow for generalization. The results may be NPO specific; further research is necessary to compare the institutional embeddedness of staffing decisions in MNCs, other NPO sectors and country contexts.

Organizations in both fields find different answers to similar external pressures, which may encourage mutual learning.

This article highlights the neglected research topic of expatriation in non-corporate assignment settings and offers an alternative view on staffing decisions than the previously predominant rational one.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the health-related well-being of public sector expatriates paying particular attention to the family situation.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among the entire staff of the German Foreign Service (GFS), resulting in a response rate of 35.5 percent (analytical sample n=1,390). Partnership status, childlessness, and experiences of partnership break-ups were analyzed by gender and by age. Using OLS regression, the authors examine how gender and individual perceptions of conflict between international relocation and family stability and formation contribute to subjective well-being.

The results show that females are significantly over-represented among GFS employees who experience partnership instability as well as among single and childless employees. Yet barriers to partnership and family formation appear to be increasing for younger cohorts of male employees.

Unstable families can jeopardize the well-being of employees highlighting that expatriates’ relationship and family needs are insufficiently met in high mobility contexts.

The focus on family formation challenges in non-corporate expatriation makes a novel contribution to the literature and practice of expatriate management, as the system-wide rotational staff mobility of public service institutions has received minor attention.

The purpose of this paper is to report on female expatriates' views on the potential importance of a formalised “women's network” launched by management as a diversity intervention to aid women's career development in an oil, gas and minerals extractive industries firm.

The approach takes the form of a triangulated research comprising analysis of company policy, interviews with Human Resources staff, a census survey of women expatriates, followed by in‐depth, semi‐structured female expatriate interviews.

Women value networking to prepare for expatriation and in working and living abroad. Informal networks are also used by more experienced women expatriates to learn of potential vacancies and gain career development on expatriation and repatriation. A formalised women's network is envisaged as being helpful to supplement these links. In a male‐dominated environment, the value of a network for women is appreciated, although concerns are raised that this might further reinforce gender divisions.

Research was limited to a single case study where the intervention had only recently been launched. Further research is needed to evaluate the impact of similar, more established career interventions. Comparative studies are also needed, both within the oil, gas and minerals sector and in other industries.

Employers developing formal networking interventions could benefit from understanding the views of potential users, particularly in respect of the potential limitations of such networks in promoting career development and through the adoption of a gendered approach.

There are relatively few data available on formalised employer actions to set up and run networks specifically for women as career development interventions. This case study provides an insight into how these might be received by – and their potential impact on – female expatriates.

This paper was written in response to the tendency for the international education literature to position the international teacher in essentialist and western-centric terms. The international school landscape has changed significantly in the last 20 years, leading to the rise of type C non-traditional international schools, which requires a reconceptualisation of the international teacher. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a Chinese English teacher (Daisy) in an internationalised school in Shanghai constructed her identity as an international teacher.

This paper drew upon concepts from the teacher identity literature in order to construct a comparative conceptual framework comprised of personal, professional and cross-cultural domains of experience. Commensurate with this framework, in-depth phenomenological interviewing and member-checking were utilised in order to gain access to the participant’s lived experiences. Member-checking and data analysis became a dialogic and recursive process in which rapport was continually maintained and strengthened through the sharing of raw and analysed data, with additional comments and suggestions being fed back into an emerging interpretation in order to generate more data and enhance validity.

The findings highlighted how Daisy was active in not only constructing her identity as an international educator but also mobilising this identity to challenge the western-centric nature of international education. The findings also revealed moments of discursive dissonance. Daisy simultaneously constructed an identity as an “internationalising” teacher, but was also constructed as an international teacher through a discourse that presented international education as constructivist, and therefore western-centric, in nature. Implications and recommendations are made for practice and research based on these findings.

This paper offers an alternative perspective on the international teacher experience, which continues to be western-centric in focus, by exploring the development of an international teacher identity from a Chinese perspective.

Researchers often face challenges in locating and obtaining relevant and meaningful information during qualitative international business (IB) field research in other countries. This process constitutes an immensely critical phase, which determines the success or failure of the research endeavour. The purpose of this paper is to discuss “access” as a multidimensional and contestable concept that poses particular challenges in international and multicultural research contexts.

This paper builds on the experience as field researchers in China/Hong Kong (120 in-depth interviews) and the need to disseminate acquired field experiences, in particular concerning “access”. The multifaceted issue of “access” is rarely featured on the IB methodological agenda, and has become a silent feature of qualitative IB research.

This paper is devoted to this nexus: the lack of focus on “access” issues, and the rich sources of acquired, but mostly veiled, field experiences that feature in both IB and management research programmes. A plausible explanation for this circumstance relates to the influence of mainstream positivist and objectivist paradigms in which researchers are not recognised as having an impact on research processes, hence taking this silent feature for granted.

By viewing the multiple dimensions of “access”, we move beyond the mainstream understanding that merely relates it to the question of gaining access to a physical site and/or the time of an individual, and in which “access” is only an enterprise of securing pre-existing, tangible information. Drawing upon specific international field research experiences, this paper contributes to the methodological debate concerning “access” – beyond “technicality” and towards a concept of socio-cultural and multidimensional research practice.