Picture the assignment we would all call a success. Eighteen months in, she has the language. She knows which meetings matter and which are theatre. Her local colleagues have stopped explaining things to her. When she pushes back in a meeting, nobody hears an outsider pushing back — they hear a colleague. Ask anyone in […]
Picking a New Foreign Location? What a Hassle!
Multinational corporations continue expanding abroad and thus try to populate foreign markets more and more. For instance, a lot has been said and written about emerging markets, which lure Western corporations with good investment opportunities. At the same time, there is also a reverse trend of emerging-market brands going global. As such, all businesses with […]
Latest Research: How Does Terrorism Influence Expats?
Going abroad, leaving your own country and comfort zone, has always been viewed as taking some sort of risk. The same is also valid when speaking about companies pursuing international business opportunities, because foreign markets always involve potential country risks, whether of economic, political or cultural sort. In recent years, the list of relevant country […]
Expats in Emerging Markets: Revising Previous Trends?
Exactly two years ago I wrote about emerging markets and the scarcity of talent these markets were experiencing. As the main message read, multinational corporations started actively expanding into emerging markets where they faced a lack of talent because local managers often did not have the necessary set of skills and preparation. As such, emerging […]
The F-Day
‘It’s F-Day – the day half the world has awaited with bated breath for the past two years’ – that is the introduction for one of the many articles covering one of the most recent hot topics in the business world. Specifically, F-Day refers to the 1st of July 2014, which is when a new […]
The Deep Waters of Global Business Travel
Today global travel in general and global business travel in particular is not really a problem. It still comes at a cost, yet it is a great asset for multinational companies, because they can get the people they need to the locations they want for the duration that is required. There are multiple travel modes, […]
What Can Global Teams Learn from the FIFA World Cup?
Joining in on the frenzy of the football World Cup in Brazil, this week I would like to draw some parallels between the world of professional football and the world of global business. To start with, the casual transition that football players have between their club teams and national teams is quite striking. Looking into […]
Latest Research: Expatriates as Newcomers Abroad
I believe that at the heart of every entry process, be it a new employee’s entry into an organization, a student’s entry into a new class, or an immigrant’s entry abroad, is a need for adjustment of the newcomer. In other words, whenever there is a change in environment, a need for fitting in arises. […]
The Expat Dilemma: Building New or Keeping Old Relationships
In one of my recent posts, I discussed the cases of expats visiting home, missing the familiarity of it and trying to balance between the ‘new’ (even if temporary) and ‘old’ homes. Continuing on this topic of this double expat life, today I would like to focus on expats’ relationships, and more specifically, their friendships. […]
Expat Homesickness: Is It really that Bad?
Are you an expat, who was assigned to a year-long project abroad, and who feels homesick? I believe, many will understand you. Or are you a spouse, who decided to leave your life back home to accompany your partner, and you feel homesick? Well, that is also quite normal. What if you are an expat, […]
Family Performance in Expatriation: About the Concept and Measurement
The role of the family in expatriation has been a long-standing topic in the field of global mobility. Many different sources highlight that the family has been and continues to be an important factor in expatriation. Indeed, according to the latest Cartus 2014 Global Mobility Policy and Practices survey, family challenges remain the top (61%) […]
Multilingualism: Multiple Personalities or Just a Diverse One?
Governed by the needs of globalization, I believe it is fair to state that multilingualism is becoming a MUST in the increasingly multicultural business world. Apart from simply possessing more than one language, multilingual individuals are usually more culturally competent (linguistic knowledge decreases cross-cultural barriers), have a more efficient brain (take a look here), and […]
Working in a Cross-cultural Environment: Where to Look for Cultural Gaps?
Multicultural, multinational, and multilingual teams are part and parcel of global organizations of today. This highlights the importance of cultural competencies, cross-cultural cooperation, and leadership of multinational teams. Indeed, the main question for many is how to do business and effectively manage in such a culturally diverse environment? Cultural competence: too broad to grasp? Well […]
When an Expat Visits Home: Caught Between Two Worlds?
In this blog I have written several articles about expats’ difficulties and challenges for the initial adjustment abroad, and also about the difficulties of repatriation. However, what has been less discussed in my blog so far is the time ‘in-between’, namely when the expat is visiting home during the international assignment. Are there any potential […]
Gender Bias on a Global Scale
Remember the last time you did something wrong or experienced a failure? How did you explain it? I bet you could have attributed many reasons to some sort of situational factors. For example, you could have failed to execute some work assignment on time due to having many other urgent tasks, right? Now, think of […]
The Return of the Expat Allowance
Given the recent focus on the economic crisis in financial news reporting, many headlines in the area of global mobility were about reductions of expat costs and, more specifically, of expat compensation packages. At the beginning of this year however, several sources predicted possible changes to the cost reduction orientation, arguing that talent scarcity will […]
Latest Research: What Makes One Cross-Culturally Competent?
One of the most important topics in the area of global mobility concerns the cross-cultural competencies (CC) that are required when abroad. Be it for the population of global leaders, international expatriates and inpatriates, their spouses and kids, or global nomads, we look for characteristics, abilities and skills that help people to adjust and function […]
