My father-in-law recently shared Peter Godwin’s memoir “Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss, and Occasional Wars” with me. Like my father-in-law, who grew up in Zimbabwe before migrating to Australia, Godwin is intimately familiar with the peculiar grief of belonging to multiple places and none fully. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, educated in England, […]
Adjustment in Extreme Contexts: The Case of Military Expats
Following up on the topic of extreme cases of expatriation that I recently touched upon, today I would like to review an interesting piece of academic work. Specifically, the scholars Fisher and Hutchings (2013) examined the relationship between cultural distance (CD) and expatriate adjustment in a rarely addressed area of intercultural collaboration in the military […]
Immigrants: Why Would Any Country Want Them?
On April 16, 2013 the United States Senate was introduced to a new immigration reform bill, called The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. The reform bill aims to increase border security, streamline legal immigration, and address the issue of undocumented immigrants already settled in the country. In regards to the […]
Extreme Cases of Repatriation: Not your ‘Average Joe’ Story
When we usually talk about an expatriate, we tend to consider the ‘average Joe’: the one who relocates abroad for a work assignment for a definite or indefinite period, who faces challenges with adjusting abroad, and who most probably encounters reverse cultural shock and readjustment problems upon repatriation back home. However, there are far more […]
A GLOBAL World of…LOCAL Businesses
Today it is possible to cross borders of different countries and still manage to eat in the same places, shop for the same brands, and stay in the same hotel chains. Plainly speaking, this is the era of globalization. Many new businesses are trying to expand abroad and find a place in the global market; […]
Spotlight Millennial Employees: Key Considerations for Organizations
In spite of the rapid technological development employees are still considered the main resource for organizations, and hence employee motivation and retention continue to be of great importance at a global scale. However, employees’ work related attitudes and preferences do change over time, which implies that organizations need to tailor their people management strategies to […]
Latest Research: Knowledge Transfer of HRM Practices Between Parent-country and Subsidiary
Corporate expatriates have always been an important group of globally mobile employees, because they can serve various organizational aims by fulfilling either practical or more strategic roles. For example, an employee can be sent on an international assignment to share important knowledge and optimize certain processes in a new company subsidiary, or on the other […]
Homesickness: A Natural Part of Being Away from Home?
Globally mobile individuals are the ones who know by experience how it feels to adjust to a new destination, suffer from reverse cultural shock when returning back home, have a restless urge for new relocations, and finally recognize the homesickness when away from home again. The latter, namely homesickness, is not as pronounced a topic […]
‘Working Retirees’ Abroad: Another Facet of Expat Life
Moving abroad after retirement in pursuit of cheaper living expenses, enjoyable climate, and a relaxed lifestyle is nothing new. However, a recent NYTimes article argues that the trend of relocating abroad for work after retirement is gaining appeal. Also echoed by another NYTimes article, it is noted that more American retirees are choosing to take […]
Are the U.S. Losing Their Edge on Recruiting and Retaining Foreign Talent?
Traditionally the United States have been attracting a foreign workforce as a country with a developed economy, near endless opportunities, and English as the predominant working language. However, a recent article in The New York Times argues that today the situation is rather different, with the U.S. losing its edge and facing intense competition in […]
The Eurozone’s Most Glaring Imbalance: Southern European Unemployment vs. German Labor Shortages
Several economic publications and stats suggest that since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, the unemployment rates in European countries have only risen. According to Global Research, by today the number of unemployed workers in Spain and France has reached all-time highs. The same disturbing figures are also seen in Greece, Portugal, […]
Taxonomy of internationally mobile managers
Due to increased business globalization, the demand for competent international managers also continues to grow. Accordingly, international human resources management (IHRM) practices are constantly adapted to account for the many different ways that international work can be arranged. Indeed, several scholars argue that a classification within the group of international managers is needed, which would […]
Gender Diversity in the Workplace: Lessons from Global Top Performers
Gender diversity in the upper ranks of a company is a hot topic in global business, as several studies (e.g. McKinsey, Catalyst) indicate that female representation in executive positions is beneficial for the companies, and that it brings additional commercial value. The practical experiences of companies seem to confirm the notion, as more and more […]
Assignments FROM Developing Locations: Part 2
As promised in my previous post, today I would like to continue with the topic of challenges raised by assignments from developing locations. In my last entry, I discussed issues such as compensation, family concerns and cultural barriers. However, as indicated by the relevant survey from Brookfield Global Relocation Services (BGRS) this list of challenges […]
Assignments FROM Developing Locations: Latest Survey Results
Lately a lot is being said and written about the growing trend of sending international assignees to developing and emerging countries. In fact, emerging markets have remained a hot topic in the current year, and mobility specialists and relocation managers continue to point to the many challenges in developing destinations: Security issues, appropriateness of compensation packages, […]
Latin America: Is It Truly Welcoming Foreigners?
For the last three to four years, Latin America has been considered as one of the booming economies. Indeed, hardly any publication on emerging markets and future economic prospects goes by without mentioning the potential of Brazil, Mexico and several other countries. So does a recent article in The Economist, highlighting the changes in Latin […]
‘Englishnization’ of Global Corporations: Strategy is Needed
One of my previous articles touched on the topic of language challenges faced by an internationally mobile workforce and multinational corporations in today’s globalized world. And even though several different solutions for overcoming language barriers are proposed, introducing a single working language is probably the most widely used strategy. Moreover, such unifying business language usually […]
