Steve McKenna

Leaving and experiencing: why academics expatriate and how they experience expatriation

Globalisation has led to increasing international mobility amongst business and education professionals. Whilst expatriate management literature focuses on expatriate assignment of corporate executives, expatriate academics remain an under researched group. Higher education literature has focused on internationalisation of education systems, notably the growth in international strategic alliances between universities, and mobility amongst students. Therefore compared with what is known about the student body, very little is known about the experiences of internationally mobile academics. Drawing on a qualitative study of academics, this paper evaluates the use of metaphor for understanding the “motivation to go” overseas and the “experience” of expatriation. It evaluates four metaphors which have emerged from the study for expatriating and four others for the experience of expatriation. Finally it suggests that the voluntary, self‐selecting expatriate should be much more extensively researched.

International experience and academic careers

This paper focuses on the relatively unexplored link between international experience and academic careers. Drawing on a study of 30 British academics in four countries, it reports how they accounted for their decision to take an overseas appointment and how they evaluated that appointment. The contemporary career literature is used as a framework for analysis connecting the findings with “traditional” and “new” career themes. The desire to travel was found to be a key driver in taking the overseas appointment. When it came to evaluating the overseas appointment, however, upward career mobility in the context of increasing internationalisation was a major concern. The paper offers a number of key concerns for managers in institutions of higher education, particularly those concerned with the management and recruitment of international faculty.

The increasing complexity of the internationally mobile professional

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a research agenda and raise practical issues relating to the increasing complexity of the internationally mobile professional.Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers the developing issues in the use of alternative forms of international assignment (short‐term, commuter, flexpatriate) and the existence of the independent internationally mobile professional and raises questions for research and practice.Findings – The paper suggests that alternative forms of international assignment and assignee are under‐ researched. Additionally, the large number of independently mobile professionals in the global economy need to be further researched, while organizations should recruit for international assignments from the external as well as internal labour markets when circumstances allow.Originality/value – The paper raises under‐researched questions in the study of international assignments and suggests more strategic approaches to the practice of managing ...

Predispositions and context in the development of managerial skills

This paper investigates the usefulness of textbook and company approaches to developing managerial skills and competencies. It suggests that textbooks, based on an “experiential” approach to skill building, are contradictory in that they ultimately privilege predispositions over training in the practice of behaviours. The development of managerial skills therefore, is restricted by the individuals predispositions towards behaving in a certain way. In addition, the paper argues that the managerial competency approach used by many organizations, and also reflected in textbooks, fails to appreciate the predominance of the situation or context in determining how managers behave. Ultimately, the education of business students and managers, on courses at university and in‐company, dealing with managerial skills are deficient because “skills” cannot be abstracted from either the person or the context. The idea of managerial competence as a fact of being is illusory, managers are always and constantly being competent or incompetent.

Organisational commitment in the small entrepreneurial business in Singapore

Using qualitative data from 20 managers in four small Singaporean businesses in the services sector this article explores the issue of organisational commitment. The findings generally support those in the positivistic literature on organisational commitment. It also argues, however, that continuance commitment, largely seen as negative for organisations and performance, can be both positive and negative in certain circumstances. The article further suggests that owner/manager style in the businesses may have an important impact on manager commitment and that the future growth and development of these businesses may be stunted as a consequence of negative aspects of the entrepreneurial management style.

Integrating realistic job previews and realistic living conditions previews: Realistic recruitment for internationally mobile knowledge workers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of realistic job previews (RJPs) and realistic living conditions previews (RLCPs) during the recruitment of a group of internationally mobile knowledge workers who elect to go overseas independently rather than as part of an overseas assignment. It also aims to explore individual perceptions of the value of RJPs and RLCPs in contributing to work and general living adjustment.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a qualitative study of international faculty in six Canadian universities using in‐depth interviews to examine their experiences of recruitment and focusing specifically on the extent to which RJPs and RLCP were provided.Findings – The findings reflect the need for realistic recruitment that includes information about position specifications and responsibilities as well as non‐organizational factors such as opportunities for spousal employment. Thus, respondents did not conceptualize the recruitment process in terms of two separa...

Deconstructing a personal “academic”/“practitioner” narrative through self‐reflexivity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to self‐reflexively deconstruct a paper published by the author in 1996 about a Singaporean entrepreneur for whom the author worked. Through the deconstruction a number of important methodological and epistemological issues are raised. Firstly, the way in which the value of qualitative research in management and organization studies is judged more by how it conforms to acceptable ways of data collection, analysis and interpretation (strategic apparatus) than on any “truth” value it may have. Secondly, a consideration of how the “I” of the researcher is influential in how research is undertaken and written up. Thirdly, that this “I” of the researcher is also determined by what is acceptable “scientific” discourse and by other prevailing discourses.Design/methodology/approach – In a paper published in 1996, the author detailed the “dark side” of an entrepreneur for whom he worked. Using a psychoanalytic framework this paper constructed the entrepreneur as an irrational...

Managing, managerial control and managerial identity in the post‐bureaucratic world

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the issues involved in managerial control and managerial identity in relation to the idea of a post‐bureaucratic organization. In addition it introduces the papers in this special issue.Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies the increasing complexity of issues of managerial control and managerial identity that arise from the idea of a post‐bureaucratic organization and post‐bureaucratic working practices, such as flex‐work and project management.Findings – The paper suggests that the form and nature of managerial control and managerial identity are constantly evolving and in a state of flux as a consequence of processes of (de)bureaucratization and (re)bureaucratization.Originality/value – The paper raises important questions about the nature of management in post‐bureaucratic work environments and challenges the behaviourist competencies approach to developing managers.

Negotiating, accepting and resisting HRM: a Chinese case study

There is considerable scholarly and practitioner debate about the extent to which North American-styled human resource management (HRM) practices are transferable across international boundaries. The current trend is for scholars to use largely managerialist theoretical frameworks to explain the transference of putative ‘best practices’ from one context to another, or use culturalist/institutionalist explanations as to why practices cannot be transferred. While useful, these explanations are largely apolitical and uncritical, ignoring the theoretical and conceptual assumptions and origins of the respective practices. Drawing on a case-study approach to examine the adoption of and resistance towards North American HRM practices in a Chinese computer manufacturing firm, this paper suggests that whereas some HRM practices were accepted, others were resisted, largely because of their impact on end-users’ working lives. The paper investigates the case through the lenses of the system, society and dominance effects framework and shows the continuing relevance of the concept of control in interpreting how ideas about HRM are negotiated into practice, rather simply transferred or rejected.

The perils of project-based work: Attempting resistance to extreme work practices in video game development

This article examines two blogs written by the spouses of game developers about extreme and exploitative working conditions in the video game industry and the associated reader comments. The wives of these video game developers and members of the game community decry these working conditions and challenge dominant ideologies about making games. This article contributes to the work intensification literature by challenging the belief that long hours are necessary and inevitable to make successful games, discussing the negative toll of extreme work on workers and their families, and by highlighting that the project-based structure of game development both creates extreme work conditions and inhibits resistance. It considers how extreme work practices are legitimized through neo-normative control mechanisms made possible through project-based work structures and the perceived imperative of a race or ‘crunch’ to meet project deadlines. The findings show that neo-normative control mechanisms create an insularity within project teams and can make it difficult for workers to resist their own extreme working conditions, and at times to even understand them as extreme.