Diversity is a decent word, isn’t it? It implies the notion of valuing differences, inclusiveness and equality. It stands against prejudices, discrimination and unfair treatment. We talk about Diversity in our effort to make all racial and cultural backgrounds equally matter, to provide women with fair opportunities, and to allow any other minorities feel safe […]
Corporate Volunteering: Better for the World (OR) AND for the Business?
Volunteering. What kind of ideas does this word evoke? I suggest the majority of us would think about local NGOs, student gap years and volunteering activities during retirement. Moreover, when thinking about international volunteering, wouldn’t we associate this quite naturally with lower-skilled activities, such as construction, farming or gardening, childcare and language teaching? In other […]
Moving Abroad? But Where to?
Have you ever considered moving abroad? If not, prepare yourself for a lot of deliberations (in case you will someday). If you already have, you probably ‘know the pain’… Indeed, relocating abroad, either permanently or temporarily, is a big decision in one’s life and there is a ton of details one needs to consider and […]
The SCARF in Global Mobility
In my last blog post I wrote about social neuroscience and the SCARF theory, which explains social behavior based on our brain principle known as ‘threat and reward response’. The theory posits that within social interactions our experience is influenced either by perceived threat or reward in one or several of five domains: status, certainty, […]
Want to Explain Social Behavior? Look into the Brain
Let’s start with a short mental exercise… Please try to remember and note down (for the sake of further discussion here) a recent social situation, be it at work, in your family or during leisure time, when you felt slightly concerned, worried or annoyed (e.g., your boss gave you critical feedback). Now, let’s do the […]
‘Immigrants Steal Jobs’ or ‘Should We Listen to Mr. Trump?’
As the rally for the U.S. presidency continues, Trump continues his anti-immigrant rhetoric, arguing that illegal immigrants, referring mostly to Mexican immigrants, take away jobs from struggling America’s poor. Naturally, such sentiments built upon fear and a perception of scarce resources may work well with less informed or frustrated and worrying individuals, as we have […]
Living in a Terrorized World
Two years ago I wrote about expatriation and terrorism, arguing that global mobility professionals pay increasingly more attention to terror-related issues. Unfortunately in light of the recent ‘wave of terrorism’, be it the Nice attack in France, the Ansbach bombing in Germany, or the Orlando nightclub shooting (quite honestly, you name it), the case of […]
Global Mobility Functions: Bringing Value, but Struggling to Demonstrate It
In my latest blog entry I argued that globalization is in need of global leaders, who would allow for a more integrative approach in fostering globalization further. Indeed, globalization seems to need an extra push, as contrary to general perceptions of global interconnectedness, actual data indicates that the world is still not ‘flat’. Echoing this […]
Towards More Gender-Inclusive Mobility!
Diversity is a cornerstone in today’s globalized world. In the current global political arena, diversity seems to be a source of social unrest and heated debate. Yet, in the global business world there is a solid consensus on the benefits of and need for diversity. Both practitioners and researchers seem to agree that cultural, racial, […]
Globalization Attacked as Never Before
This week the Euro 2016 semi-finals and the final will be played and many football fans will be living through the decisive moments of the European football tournament, which will culminate on Sunday 10 of July. Yet, even amid all the football buzz, another decisive moment for Europe could not remain unnoticed. UK voted FOR […]
EURO 2016 showcases the Multicultural Europe
In line with the popular movie-based expression ‘I know what you did last summer’, since last Friday we may be popularizing ‘I know what you did last evening’. For many this would imply the obvious—namely football (soccer)! Yes, the EURO 2016 has started, which means watching football matches, discussing teams’ odds to win, and reading […]
Color BLIND or Color BRAVE?
Let’s start with a small mental experiment today. Imagine you walked into a room of a major corporation and every single person in the boardroom was black. Wouldn’t you think this is weird? Now imagine that you walked into another Fortune 500 company and all people in the boardroom were white males… When will it […]
Global Hazards and Global Business
McKinsey’s recent survey on globalization reveals that geopolitical instability has become a critical influence on global business. Indeed, the number of executives who attribute high importance to the factor of geopolitical instability has doubled in two years. According to the survey data, geopolitical risks are today as important for companies as other previously impactful factors, […]
Expat-preneurs: A New Type of Global Employees
Within the global workforce exist a whole range of international work experiences. When referring to expatriation, we are speaking about traditional company-initiated expats, who are sent abroad for either shorter or longer periods of time. That is a very simplistic distinction though, as the landscape of company-initiated assignments is constantly changing, producing an increasing variety […]
What we know and don’t know about intercultural competence
Intercultural competence is one of the salient topics in the field of global mobility, with ongoing interest in both academic and applied settings. For example, implications of intercultural competence can’t be overseen when speaking about global workforce mobility, multicultural team management, cross-cultural collaborations in both business and education domains, immigration, and the current refugee crisis. […]
Latest Insights from Expat Industry Survey
Recently, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by UnitedHealthcare Global, surveyed 360 executives from North America and Europe and conducted five in-depth interviews with experts to examine companies’ experiences with global mobility. In the following I will highlight some key report data that caught my eye. • Assignment geography is not about the traditional home […]
