For decades, the concept of expatriate adjustment has centered on the traditional long-term assignment: a 3-to-5-year relocation to another country, often with family in tow. Researchers and practitioners alike have focused on how well expatriates adapt to the host country’s culture, their new workplace, and daily life abroad. But in today’s world of global work, […]
How to manage your energy in a global role
Having just returned from our annual family skiing trip I have been reminded of how important it is to conserve and restore your energy resources. A few consecutive, full days of skiing can easily sap your physical energy. But we all know that our mental energy is a finite resource as well. And sometimes it […]
What Will the Future of Global Mobility Look Like?
As 2023 draws to a close, I would like to look back and ahead as I have done in past years. The ancient Roman god Janus—the god of beginnings and endings, gates, transitions, time and, duality—is not only an apt metaphor for this yearly review but it is quite fitting for the global mobility landscape […]
Why the Strategic Use of Inpatriation Benefits Multinationals
You have probably heard an old aphorism – Time is Money. Today, in the knowledge economy, it is more suitable to equate money with knowledge though. I believe that any contemporary economist would argue that knowledge (and technology) are the required components for enhanced productivity and economic growth. This premise holds particularly true for multinational […]
Global Mobility in a (Post-)Covid World: Findings from a Recent Industry Survey
Will global mobility disappear in a (post-)Covid world? About a year ago I entertained the idea of a dystopian post-Coronavirus world, a version of an ’online’ world, where we would rather upgrade our ZOOM and Google Meets licences than book business trips and plan relocations… Luckily, such a scenario may remain fictional, because global mobility […]
Coronavirus and Social Networks: Can There be Light in the Darkness?
On Friday, January 31, the WHO declared the new coronavirus a global health emergency. By now, the virus has reached every region in mainland China and continues to spread outside China as well. Evacuation and quarantine operations of hundreds of foreign nationals from China are underway. Moreover, several countries reacted to the emergency by restricting […]
Latest Global Mobility Trends
Over recent years I have talked about several megatrends and globally impactful changes in this blog: Brexit and Trump are shaking the geopolitical landscape and spreading protectionist tendencies; automation changes the world of work; the migration crisis and climate change stand as ongoing global issues; Europe foresees challenges of an aging population, while Chinese citizens […]
Into 2018 with Optimism
2018 – here we are! I believe that for many it is exciting to welcome the New Year, as it symbolises the beginning of something new, fills us with new energy and hope. Many times this momentum of a new beginning drives people to conclude ‘the past’ and create all sorts of resolutions and multiple […]
Challenges of Global Mobility: The Latest Industry Report
We have recently come to a point where many declaim the end of globalization as we have known it. Yet, amid this anti-globalization rhetoric, global businesses are clearly taking a different stance, arguing that more, not less, globally proficient talent is needed. A recent AXA World of Work Report, which surveyed 250 firms in eight […]
What Can Corporations Learn from Digital Nomads?
In your opinion, what would be the trending job-related ‘wannabe’ and fantasy many people, especially millennials, have these days? I would definitely vote for keywords such as flexibility, meaningfulness, entrepreneurship, global travel and digital… basically everything that is so well captured and ‘romanticized’ by digital global work, or a digital nomad lifestyle. Even without looking […]
My Christmas Wish List
As the year comes to an end, it is about time to make Christmas wishes. I will certainly make my personal ones, but I would also like to provide some on behalf of the world of global business and global mobility – topics I work on and write so much about. Looking back at the […]
Globalization, Robots and a Future Scenario
We all understand globalization as the free movement of goods, ideas and people. Buying Chinese products in European stores, working together with foreign colleagues, and taking an online-course from a physically distant university are all results of globalization. Richard Baldwin, a Geneva-based economist, sees all these results as a consequence of a series of waves […]
When Global Businesses Can Provide Global Hope
Last week I wrote about global warming and the importance of acting upon it. I also mentioned the U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, who throughout his campaign denied the issue and planned to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on a global climate deal. While Trump seems to be slightly pivoting on the matter, much […]
Are We Bound to Feel Lonely in the Globalized World?
As social animals we have survived because we used to form bonds and be members of tribes. Several interesting studies show that we are wired to be social on such a deep level that social isolation is actually processed similarly to physical pain by our mind. Plenty of research shows that loneliness is bad for […]
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 […]
