Marian Crowley-Henry

Self‐initiated expatriation and migration in the management literature: Present theorizations and future research directions

Purpose – This paper aims to offer a critical review of how self‐initiated expatriation (SIE) is theorized compared to migration in the management literature and to indicate venues for future research on SIE.Design/methodology/approach – A systematic review has been conducted using the ISI Web of Knowledge database as well as ABI/INFORM in order to include key journals in the management field.Findings – Despite the importance of present theorizations on SIE, the authors show that the literature presents a narrow focus on the most privileged of self‐initiated expatriates and presents some important knowledge gaps. In order to fill these gaps, the authors propose a research map for future research on SIE. This map includes four key dimensions. These are: diversity‐informed research on SIE; context specific and multilevel understanding of SIE; reflexive approaches to SIE; triangulated methods to studying SIE.Research limitations/implications – By proposing a research map with theoretical and methodological i...

Re‐conceptualizing the career development of self initiated expatriates: rivers not ladders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore contemporary metaphors used in career literature pertaining to career development in an international context.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative interviews with thirty‐seven skilled self‐initiated expatriates in one geographical location were conducted and used for data analysis.Findings – The metaphor of a “river” more aptly captures the career development directions and influences experienced by skilled self‐initiated expatriates.Originality/value – The paper provides an analysis of career development influences which impact on the career direction of self‐initiated expatriates. It provides useful information and recommendations for career (international career) academics and practitioners with regards to career development influences to be considered with regards to skilled self‐initiated expatriates.

Talent management of skilled migrants: propositions and an agenda for future research

Abstract This paper unpacks the dominant conceptualizations of talent management (TM) in contemporary academic publications, and considers these in relation to the increasingly important workforce population of skilled international migrants. It postulates that TM approaches are generally built from a relatively narrow human capital-based perspective wherein organizations focus on readily accessible and immediate skills, ignoring the longer term strategic potential of the international workforce of skilled migrants, particularly for multinational enterprises and other international organizations. Through a series of propositions, the paper highlights how organizations, in strategically using a more comprehensive TM lens rather than a human capital lens in approaching the TM of skilled migrants, could benefit from improved HRM performance over time. It also proposes a research agenda, by which future studies might test, explore, and further develop understanding on a more strategic utilization of skilled migrants in organizations.

Control and the Protean Career: A Critical Perspective from the Multinational's International Assignees

Recommended Citation Crowley-Henry, M., Weir, D.: Control and the Protean Career: A Critical Perspective from the Multinational’s International Assignees. Crowley-Henry, M and Weir, D (forthcoming 2008) Control and the Protean Career: A Critical Perspective from the Multinational’s International Assignees, in Voronov, M,Wolfram Cox, J, LeTrent-Jones, T and Weir, D (eds), Critical Management Studies at Work: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Negotiating Tensions between Theory and Practice (forthcoming), Cheltenham, Edgar Elgar Publishing Ltd.

A Systematic Literature Review on Trans* Careers and Workplace Experiences

This chapter presents a systematic review conducted on the academic literature related to the careers and workplace experiences of the trans* population (including but not limited to: transsexual, transgender, genderqueer). Primarily situated in the career theory, human resources, and general business management disciplines, but including where relevant articles from other areas, this chapter examines the primary issues that a trans* person faces in the workplace and during their career. The review examines major themes within the literature surrounding the topic, outlines major findings, and makes recommendations for HR practitioners and line managers promoting diversity and inclusion in their organization. The main themes unpacked in this chapter are pre-career issues, the job search, general career issues, and transitioning in the workplace.

Power, control and the protean Career: a critical perspective on multinational organizations' permanent international assignees

Mainstream management literature and research regarding the international career has long focused on the traditional expatriate experience (for example Adler 1986; Boyacigiller 1995; Dowling and Welch 2004; Feldman and Tompson 1993; Mendenhall and Oddou 2000). In this discourse, the tendency has been to outline the benefits and issues to be considered for organizations and individuals embarking on international assignments. In contrast, this chapter focuses on a special group whose positioning in the structures of employment and organization is in some ways exemplary of developing trends in the global labor force. They are the highly educated permanent expatriates1 who remain in the host country indefinitely (that is without a pre-determined organizational option of repatriation to their initial home country). We engage with the mainstream ways of dealing with this group and take a critical approach in exploring their international careers. In fact, we take a critical stance on the notion of ‘career’ itself and question its ubiquitous application. Adopting a loose and critical review of Foucault’s governmentality, technologies of power and domination and technologies of the self, we aim to explore organizational and individual power and control with regard to an individual’s career in an international context, and to propose a practical model for professionals working in areas such as human resource management (HRM), human resource development (HRD) and career management consultancy.

International Knowledge Professionals: Contemporary Career Concerns and Implications

This study supplements existing contemporary research on knowledge workers. It takes an interpretivist approach to represent and analyse a new breed and under-researched subcategory of international assignee termed ‘bounded transnationals’ by the author. In the context of this paper these can be simply described as internationally-located knowledge professionals. This sample has committed to living indefinitely in the host country as foreign residents where they are employed under local country contracts of employment. The paper explores how the sample perceives and makes sense of careers in the context of globalisation and change. Internationally-based knowledge professionals are sensitive to global labour market conditions. While some academics have advocated the notion of the boundaryless career with the agency freedom of being able to move inter-organisationally at ease, other factors which influence the ability to do so must be considered in the holistic career framework, not least the host country labour market conditions and personal circumstances (such as family settled in the area; home ownership locally). This is a qualitative research undertaking where in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of locally hired international knowledge professionals based in France and Germany. Patterns in the narratives relating to career management considerations in living and working in a foreign country are interpreted inductively. This ethnographical study is rich in its contextual familiarity with the sample, with the author having been a member of the sample population before, during and immediately after the interview process. The narratives and stories are interpreted hermeneutically and shared in the findings of this paper. The objective is to present common career concerns among internationally-located knowledge professionals, not to generalise findings to a wider population. However the elements that emerge from the stories from this sample could be tested in wider populations in order to add further validity. Elicitations from the sample’s stories suggest that while internationally-based knowledge professionals enjoy the notion of the boundaryless career where they can easily move between organisations and/or indeed geographies for employment, they are particularly vulnerable to both local and global market conditions. While the boundaryless career espouses the notion of human agency, critics have noted the vulnerability of individuals forced into following boundaryless career paths due to organisations’ failure to provide permanent work contracts or durable employment opportunities. This tension between individual and organisation control results in commitment and loyalty issues, which could materialise into wide spread inter-organisational movement even from core employees in a period of economic boom. This paper then takes a critical approach of the boundaryless career in the context of a sample of bounded transnationals, and notes the implications of this for human resource management. International Knowledge Workers. Contemporary Career Concerns & Implications Introduction While Peter Drucker coined the term ‘knowledge worker’ in 1959, there is still a lack of clarity as to what exactly this worker category includes: from those employed in service practices such as advertising or accountancy (Deetz, 1994) to those in Research & Development in the high tech industry sector (Kunda, 1992) to the ambiguity of the term (Alvesson, 2001) which could potentially include anyone dealing with knowledge on a daily basis. The discussion in this paper relates to internationally-based knowledge workers employed by multinational organisations in the Information Technology (IT) & Telecommunications industry sector. These employees are developing, testing and/or working with IT/Telecommunications products. They use their technology specific knowledge on a daily basis in their working lives and consider themselves to be at the specialist or expert level with regard to their technology knowledge in their respective organisations. This paper uses a sub-section of data collected from a wider study to highlight areas of concern relating to the careers of internationally-based knowledge workers employed by high tech multinational organisations outside their home country. Their career experiences and concerns are shared using direct quotations from narratives (Czarniawska, 2004; Riessman, 1993) that were collected as part of the wider project. Career, Control & Commitment Employee commitment is central to effective Human Resource Management (Storey, 2000: 12) and plays an important part in the career management and retention of human talent (Baruch, 2004: xv). It has been suggested that knowledge workers “form the ideal subordinates, the employer’s dream in terms of work motivation and compliance” (Alvesson, 2000). However, in an increasingly competitive knowledge based global economy, employment security is no longer definite for any member of the workforce, including knowledge workers. Downsizing, outsourcing and cost-cutting exercises have become common-place for organisations competing on a global front, resulting in job insecurity for workforce members. This suggests that organisational careers (“careers conceived to unfold in a single employment setting”, Arthur & Rousseau, 1996: 5) are increasingly controlled by the employing organisations; with “the progressive elimination of the control function of the worker, insofar as possible, and their transfer to a device which is controlled again insofar as possible, by management from out side the direct process.” (Braverman, 1974: 212). The psychological contract (Rousseau, 1995; Gratton & Hope-Hailey, 1999) between organisations and employees has been shifting from relational (where the organisation acts in a parental capacity, assuring job security to its employees) to transactional employment contracts (where the organisation pays its employees in return for their work, but does not guarantee job security). Given the changed environment in which workers are employed, company loyalty is in question, particularly for the “mobile worker” who is following a “boundaryless career” (Rosenbaum & Miller, 1996). “While the old company man moved up the company ladder, mobile workers move up any ladder onto which they can get a foot. They rise in their careers by hopping from firm to firm, with an eye toward ever-better positions, and the firms which employ them often benefit by gaining ambitious employees who bring new ideas, creativity, and the enthusiasm of new blood” (ibid: 350). It could be assumed that knowledge workers, specialists in their field and aware of their ability, have a propensity toward the mobile worker category or toward following a boundaryless career (see also Weick, 1996) in the right structural/employment setting. Research on international careers has found that expatriate assignees perceive their international experience to be valued by other organisations more than by their current employing organisation, with some writers supporting the notion of boundaryless careers for international assignees (Eby, 2001; Stahl et al., 2002). In a period of job shortages where there is a lack of inter-organisation job opportunities, control is weighted more to the organisation, even for knowledge workers predisposed to boundaryless career paths. Power and control is unstable however, and requires the adherence of individuals (Foucault, 1990): “No matter how much power one appears to accumulate, it is always necessary to obtain it from the others who are doing the action” (Latour, 1986: 276). Thus resistance and change is possible via “the constant reconfiguration of power relations” (Deetz, 1998: 153), which in a period of labour shortages would switch control from the organisation to the individual/employee. This paper puts the above discussion into context for internationally-located knowledge workers. The next section outlines the approach undertaken in this research undertaking. Then findings are put forth to support this discussion using extracts from the collected narratives. Finally implications, conclusions and further research suggestions are given. The Approach This is a hermeneutic study which looks at subjective perceptions regarding contemporary careers. The data used in this paper comes from a wider qualitative study (using in-depth interviews) with internationally-based workers. Due to the on-average lengthy narratives collected for the wider study on international careers, and the space restrictions here, for the purpose of this paper, the narratives of ten internationally-based knowledge workers in the IT & Telecomms industry sectors employed by a multinational organisation are taken. An outline of this sub-sample is given in Table 1. Four of the sample are based around Munich in Germany, with the remaining six based around Nice in the South of France. The countryspecific context and employment situation cannot be ignored here, with each country experiencing difficult employment times.

Linking Talent Management to Traditional and Boundaryless Career Orientations: Research Propositions and Future Directions

Talent management (TM) is a growing field that concentrates on optimizing human resources so that they provide a sustained competitive advantage to organizations. While successful TM practices are widely understood to include career development, the topics of careers and TM remain largely disconnected in the human resource management (HRM) literature. In this conceptual paper, we review the traditional and boundaryless career literature from a multi‐level perspective, in order to theoretically develop TM, which to date has been consistently described as under‐theorized. We contend that consideration of the functioning of careers within and across individual, network, organization, industry, occupation, and national/global structures is important when developing effective TM practices. To further understand the relationship between careers and TM, this paper develops researchable propositions for future studies, supported by the existing literature.

Women’s careers internationally:a qualitative study of female Western knowledge professionals living in the South of France

This paper is founded on a qualitative PhD study researching the careers of individuals who live outside their home country on a potentially permanent basis in the South of France. It interprets the careers of the females in the sample, and the findings highlight both the personal nature of careers and the permeable career/life boundary with the females ‘morphing’ their careers over time, as circumstances dictate and opportunities facilitate. The phenomenon of ‘morphing careers’ is identified in the literature as the protean career. Specific elements from the work/life trajectory influence women’s career choices at varying points in their life and career stage, with dual careers (trailing spouse) and children responsibilities most pertinent. The specific contribution of the research study is in its contextual richness. The research was pseudo-ethnographical with the researcher living among the author-termed ‘bounded transnational’ community prior to, during, and immediately after the in-depth semi-structured interview process. The South of France is significant in its cosmopolitan and lifestyle appeal; thus the study is regarded a geographical case due to its contextual specificity. The findings encourage debate on the content and potential of female international careers in an era where following a career internationally is less atypical. Women’s Careers Internationally. A qualitative study of female Western knowledge professionals living in the South of France Marian Crowley-Henry, marian.crowleyhenry@dit.ie Introduction The challenges and advantages of female traditional expatriates have been explored in contemporary research (Adler 1999, 2002; Linehan 2002). However, it is acknowledged that other categories of international assignee exist beyond the traditional expatriate that is sent on secondment to a subsidiary of their parent organisation for a limited duration (Collings et al. 2007; Crowley-Henry 2007; Harry and Banai 2004; Mayerhofer et al. 2004; Suutari 2003; Suutari and Brewster 2000; Harvey et al. 1999; Inkson et al. 1997). This paper interprets the careers of females who have chosen to live outside their home country on a potentially permanent basis, and who currently reside in the South of France. These findings are part of a broader PhD study of the careers of ‘bounded transnationals’ as termed by the author. They are transnationals as described by Harry and Banai (2004) in that they have moved from one country to another to perform their work function. They have become geographically mobile. However they are ‘bounded’ by virtue of the limited countries with which they have in-depth ties and knowledge and by the permeable boundaries of the work/life trajectory which renders their stay in the host country to be for as long as it is the perceived superior choice for all stakeholders (partners, children, self). Approach The researcher’s objective was to build up images of an under-researched category of international assignee, termed ‘bounded transnational’ in this study. An inductive, exploratory undertaking, the value of this study is in its contextual richness whereby the research was pseudo-ethnographical with the researcher living among the ‘bounded transnational’ community prior to, during, and immediately after the qualitative exploratory in-depth semi-structured interview process. The South of France is significant in its cosmopolitan and lifestyle appeal; thus the study is regarded a geographical case due to its contextual specificity. While research using location as the case study is very pertinent in ethnography / cultural anthropology (Mead 2001; Clifford 1988; Foote Whyte 1993) and geography (Sassen 2001; Yaeger 1996; King 1996; Hall 1991), it has not received the same attention in Management studies. Saxenian (1999, 2002) however has researched the international make-up of the Silicon Valley on the West Coast of the United States of America, but her focus has been more on the political and economic effects, rather than on the social and human resource management implications. A limitation of the case study method, in particular the single case (Stake 1994) is in the inability to generalise the findings to wider sections of the community. Generalisation was never an objective of this study, but rather an attempt to frame a further category of international assignee which would appear more relevant in the context of globalisation and free movement of labour. However, the author presumes that ‘readers will be able ... to generalize subjectively ... from the case in question to their own personal experiences’ (Denzin & Lincoln 1998: xv). While many researchers strive to fit their research neatly into a specific paradigm in order to achieve ‘paradigm closure’ (Watson 1997: 5), this researcher adopts Watson (1997)’s ‘pragmatic pluralism’ strategy which encourages the bringing together of different disciplines (or paradigms) providing that the theoretical coherence is upheld and the resulting framework of concepts and assumptions contribute to knowledge. Nonetheless, I am a qualitative researcher and place myself closest to the constructivist/interpretivist tradition, given Easterby-Smith et al. (1991)’s reasoning that the epistemological and ontological framework constructed by proponents of qualitative methodologies is socially contrived and determined by people’s understanding and interpretations (ibid: 24). Given the contextualization element of this research undertaking (foreign residents, South of France destination), my research also aligns with the critical realism (Sayer 1999) position which argues that some objects can be isolated as objective reality (such as the South of France being a nice place to live) while others vary according to individual subjective perception, life experiences and knowledge. The methodological approach followed is hermeneutic insofar as I attempt to ‘“interpret” these immediate events also in the light of previous events, private experience, and whatever else [researchers] find pertinent to the situation under investigation’ (Gummesson 1991: 150), thus claiming the impossibility of the objectification of meaning and of separating the researcher/interpreter from the researched. Small sample sizes are common in qualitative research undertakings where the aim is not to generalise findings but to highlight areas of concern in depth, which could then in further research be tested among a wider participation grouping. The sample represented in this paper consists of twenty Western women who have opted to pursue their careers (as foreign residents or permanent expatriates) in a particular area in the South of France, namely around the Sophia Antipolis science and technology park where there is a number of international organisations with a pool of international employees (http://www.sophia-antipolis.net/uk/). Particular details regarding the individuals in question can be seen in Table 1. The researcher collected the females’ narratives (Crowley-Henry and Weir 2007; Czarniawska 2004; Czarniawska & Sevon 2005; Kohler Riessman 1993) regarding their international careers, and subsequently analysed and interpreted them in the context of following an international career as both a non-national and a woman in a host country environment. The emphasis is on the individuals’ perspectives of their working lives within the international sphere. Table 1 The Female Sample Pseudonym Age Nationality Marital Status Children Profession Milly 34 American Married (English husband) son (2), daughter (7 months) Project Manager, employee. Moved to France with husband (he is a French employee). Was able to move laterally in her organisation to a project position which she was able to do in France. Angie 41 American Married (French husband) son (10), daughter (8) Lead Program Manager, people responsibility, employee. Moved to France with French husband. No job on arrival. Clare 62 American Twice divorced 4 stepchildren Senior Manager, Educational Systems & Services, people manager, employee. Moved to job on international hire for local contract with international organisation in area. Catherine 40 Australian Married (British husband) no children Marketing employee. Moved to France with her British husband. No job on arrival. Sarah 46 British Divorced (French exhusband) 1 son (21) Self employed, consultancy, own business, previous manager/people responsibility. Moved to France following her French husband. No job on arrival. Diane 31 English Engaged (British fiance) no children Nanny/child minder, then wine export trade, employee. Moved to France independently as nanny and remained as local employee. Kate 38 English Married (British husband) son (6), daughter (4) Site Manager, people responsibility, employee, starting own business consultancy. Was relocated to France with her organisation. Her husband followed as the trailing spouse. Susan 39 English Single no children Help Desk employee. Moved to France independently on offer of job with international organisation in area. Elaine 45 English Single no children Toxicology employee. Moved to France independently, firstly on traditional expatriate assignment, remained on local country contract Tracy 54 English Widow (prev husband American) 2 daughters (24, 21) Senior Manager Marketing, people responsibility, employee. Moved to France independently with children on offer of job (local country contract) Natalie 56 English Married (British husband) 1 daughter (17) Self-employed/Consultant (Personal & Business Coaching, Marketing Rep), previous manager with people responsibility. Moved to France with husband who was relocated there on local country contract through his organisation Geraldine 52 French (British) Divorced (French exhusband) 2 grown up children Manager of ‘Maison des Entreprises’ (Chambre de Commerce/French Chamber of Commerce). Moved to France as wife of French husband. No job on arrival. Katharina 37 German Married (French