Chris Brewster

Making their own way: international experience through self-initiated foreign assignments

Studies of international transferees have generally assumed that they are sent to a foreign country by their employer. In practice, many of these transferees make their own arrangements to get work abroad and this paper presents new information on this largely unstudied group, drawn from graduate engineers from Finland. It identifies similarities with the more traditional expatriate forms and some important differences. It goes on to suggest that this group of employees is itself composed of identifiable subgroups that have different characteristics.

Career capital during international work experiences: contrasting self-initiated expatriate experiences and assigned expatriation

This article explores the career capital of expatriates, differentiating between self-initiated expatriates (SEs) and company assigned expatriates (AEs). Previous research has considered issues such as individual background variables, employer and task variables, motives, compensation, and repatriation. The present study adds new perspectives related to the development of career capital. The article uses a survey of more than 200 Finnish expatriates to explore these concepts in relation to international work experiences; finding considerable similarities and some differences in the development of career capital of those sent on an expatriate assignment by an organization, and those having a self-initiated expatriate experience.

Repatriation: empirical evidence from a longitudinal study of careers and expectations among Finnish expatriates

Abstract One of the newer areas of research in the field of international human resource management concerns the repatriation of international assignees at the end of their time abroad. This paper is one of the first examples of a longitudinal cohort analysis of repatriates. Tracking the same group of well-qualified Finnish expatriates from their time abroad to after they return home, we are able to compare their views while abroad with their experience on return. We find that, as anticipated in the literature, many expatriates change employer as, or soon after, they return, but that they are in general satisfied with the effects of the foreign experience on their careers. Among this cohort at least, their expectations were met more often than not, though this was less because the organization made use of their international experience than because they were personally successful.

Expatriation: A developing research agenda

This introductory article briefly reviews the current state of research into expatriation, focusing on the critical issues of strategy, selection and predeparture, compensation, performance management, repatriation, and career management. The burgeoning research in the field is set into context and a plea made for a more varied and imaginative research agenda. The articles in the rest of this special issue are located in this context.

Knowledge Transfer and the Management of Expatriation

This is a theory-building article that uses the example of an international organization from the Spanish financial sector to explore the way in which the characteristics of knowledge influence expatriation policies. A preliminary conceptual framework is offered, and a case study is used to develop a set of theoretical hypotheses reflecting the relationship between knowledge characteristics and expatriation policies as a contribution towards a theory of international assignments.

Globalizing Human Resource Management

The book explores what is happening to HRM in a global context and how far are organizations able to understand and to move towards the notion of globalized HRM. Part One outlines the nature of globalization and introduces important areas of International HRM and International B.usiness theory. Part Two explains the strategic objectives for Global HRM in terms of building global capabilities at the organizational level and developing international management competencies at the individual level. Part Three then focuses on seven important global integration mechanisms and processes: business model innovation and the building of global capabilities; the development of a global mindset and leadership model; global talent management; the actions associated with the management of an international labor force; the pursuit of global employer brands; significant shifts in the global sourcing, shoring and types of strategic partnership; and the standardization and e-enablement of HRM.

Line management responsibility for HRM: what is happening in Europe?

The notion of line management accepting greater responsibility for human resource management (HRM) within employing organisations is now received wisdom. This paper presents data on the variation in practice across Europe, noting the evidence that the HR role is increasingly assigned to line managers, and that the extent of such assignment varies from country to country. This first presentation of data from 1999/2000 updates previous work the authors have presented on this topic: the evidence shows that in terms of that assignment, countries tend to remain in the same relationship to each other.

Human resource management in Europe: evidence from ten countries

The subject of human resource management (HRM) and its development has been much contested in the literature. Most of the relevant theories originated in the United States of America. There is in the literature no distinctly ‘European’ approach to HRM and, indeed, our knowledge of comparative HRM practices in different European states is limited. This paper draws on a major new research project which has gathered data from ten European countries to argue that practices in these countries can be categorized, inter alia, by the degree of integration of HRM into business strategy and the degree of devolvement to line managers. Using these two dimensions gives a quite distinct picture of differences in HRM practices in the ten European countries. These differences are analysed and the validity of the model is discussed. Such a categorization raises the need to consider different conceptual approaches to HRM.

Why do they go? Individual and corporate perspectives on the factors influencing the decision to accept an international assignment

This article explores the motives of individuals to accept international assignments. It uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to further our understanding of how important a variety of items are in the decision to work abroad. Employing a mutual dependency perspective it contrasts individual motives and organizational perspectives. Organizations significantly underestimate the importance of career, work/life balance and development considerations and overestimate the financial imperative and some family motives. The analysis showed that for individuals some of these factors significantly relate to outcome variables in terms of the perceived career capital accrued from assignments. The study presents a more nuanced picture of influence factors on the decision to go and advocates the use of context-sensitive, multiple perspectives. Practical implications for multinational organizations are discussed.

Towards a new model of globalizing HRM

This paper addresses the debates about the nature of strategic HRM in international companies. It builds on a substantial research programme using questionnaires and detailed case studies to argue that the international HRM field is changing significantly and rapidly and that there is a need for better understanding of these developments. Five distinct, but linked, organizational drivers of international HRM are identified and discussed: efficiency orientation, global service provision, information exchange, core business processes and localization of decision-making. These factors are creating a new set of pressures on HRM specialists. Three distinct, but linked, enablers of high-performance international HRM are being developed by multinational enterprises: HR affordability, central HR philosophy and HR excellence and knowledge transfer. A series of different strategic recipes combining these drivers and enablers are identified. These recipes in turn are delivered through a series of important HR processes: talent management and employer branding, global leadership through international assignments, managing an international workforce and evaluation of HR contribution. A tentative model of the relationships between these drivers, enablers and processes is proposed.