Host country employees’ negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership: the role of leadership transference and implicit leadership theories

PurposeDrawing on socio-cognitively orientated leadership studies, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of host country employees’ (HCEs) negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership by exploring how their memories of shared past experiences affect these perceptions. Contrary to previous work which tends to focus on HCEs’ attitudes towards individual expatriates, the authors shift attention to successive executive expatriate assignments within a single subsidiary.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on an intrinsic case study carried out in a Polish subsidiary of an American multinational pharmaceutical company which had been managed by four successive expatriate General Managers and one local executive. The authors draw on interview data with 40 HCEs. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff who had been managed by at least three of the subsidiary’s expatriate leaders.FindingsThe authors demonstrate how transference triggered by past experiences with expatriate leaders as well as HCEs’ implicit leadership theories affect HCEs’ negative perceptions of expatriate leadership and lead to the emergence of expatriate leadership schema.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the role of transference and implicit leadership theories in HCEs’ perceptions of successive executive expatriate assignments. By focussing on retrospective accounts of HCEs who had been managed by a series of successive expatriate leaders, our study has generated a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of the role of HCEs’ shared past experiences in shaping their perceptions of expatriate leadership. The authors propose a new concept – expatriate leadership schema – which describes HCEs’ cognitive structures, developed during past experiences with successive expatriate leaders, which specify what HCEs believe expatriate leadership to look like and what they expect from it.

International assignments, human capital resources and MNC subsidiary performance in CEE countries

Purpose Multinational companies (MNCs) expect the highest return from their locally dispersed units, and thus the factors that impact the success of the subsidiaries have been of great interest to the literature. Building on the resource-based view, this paper aims to explore the effects of a set of contextual resources, in particular, the international staffing (expatriate and inpatriate assignments) and human capital resources on the performance of foreign-owned subsidiaries in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Design/methodology/approach By means of a survey applied on 295 MNC subsidiaries from five CEE countries (Hungary, Romania, Poland, Serbia and the Czech Republic), the paper reveals the main relationships between contextual subsidiary level resources (the in-coming and out-going international assignments, human capital resources at both employee and management level and the human resource knowledge transfer) and the subsidiary performance. Findings This paper brings empirical support for the positive relationship between the MNCs’ contextual resources, in particular, the inpatriate assignments, the human capital resources and the performance of the locally dispersed subsidiaries. The findings show an interaction effect between the inpatriate and the expatriate assignments on the performance of the subsidiaries. The empirical results bring an insight into the understanding of the added value that the out-going inpatriate assignments and the human capital resources have for the global businesses. Research limitations/implications This paper is empirical in nature and calls for further exploration of the topic on larger random MNC samples. The findings of this paper have the potential to improve how the management of the global businesses leverages the inpatriate assignments and human capital resources, thus leading to more value-added to stakeholders. Originality/value The originality of the paper stems from the implementation of the empirical survey in the dynamic but under-researched context of the CEE region. Thus, the findings reveal valuable input about the contribution of the human capital resources at the subsidiary level for the performance of the locally dispersed MNC units in five European developing countries.

Expatriate assignments: the “same” job may require different tasks

Purpose Given a specific job, this paper aims to examine if the tasks change when moving from one country to another, and if so, whether such changes are at least partly a function of environmental factors. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method approach (surveys and interviews) with professional-level expatriates based in the UAE. Findings The results indicated that the “same” job often required different tasks depending on the country. Given a matching job between home and host countries, 66 per cent of respondents indicated that the job was different and on average, 20 per cent of the job was perceived to be different. Environmental forces did account for meaningful task differences. Legal and regulatory forces were a particularly important driver of task differences. Practical implications It is important to consider potential task differences in connection with expatriate assignments. Attending to task differences can have a positive impact on staffing, development and management processes. Originality/value Given the “same” job, the specific tasks may be different depending on the country.

Repatriation: a qualitative study of repatriates after returning from China assignments

Purpose Companies expend significant resources on global assignees’ success during deployment. However, the broader repatriation experience of organizational expatriates and their families, beyond securing employment, is still largely unexplored. Thus, the purpose of this paper, an exploratory study, is to describe the repatriation experience of five US Christian repatriates who returned to the USA after long-term expatriate assignments in China. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was employed, and data were collected through five open-ended interviews with US Christian repatriates, focusing on their social networks and family repatriation experiences. Findings Upon repatriation, most global assignees received assistance with relocation and securing stateside employment but no assistance with readjustment issues for themselves or their accompanying family members. Most found repatriation the most difficult part of the assignment, and home churches were of little assistance. The findings support the deterioration of home social networks during longer assignments and extend the literature’s findings to the expatriate spouse and families. Originality/value This exploratory study addresses the experiences of Christian US repatriates and their social support through work and non-work home social networks. The findings highlight the importance of intentional efforts by repatriates and their families to strengthen their home social connections in order to minimize repatriation difficulties.

Expatriate mentoring: The case of a multinational corporation in Abu Dhabi

Orientation: Despite numerous studies on the adjustment challenges faced by expatriates, not much emphasis has been placed on mentoring and what mentoring plans should entail. This also pertains to research on expatriate mentoring in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has experienced massive economic growth and an influx of expatriates from across the globe.Research purpose: The main purpose of the study was to propose guidelines to a multinational corporation in Abu Dhabi on compiling an expatriate mentoring plan.Motivation for the study: The prevalence of expatriate assignments to the UAE and the fact that multinational companies report high failure rates served as the motivation for the study.Research approach/design and method: A mixed-method approach was followed, and a case study design was applied. A structured questionnaire was administered to 391 expatriate employees, after which principles for expatriate mentoring were formulated and presented to a focus group for discussion.Main findings: The findings show that expatriates faced challenges regarding work-related and personal-level adaptations, which emphasise the need for an expatriate mentoring plan.Practical/managerial implications: Principles for expatriate mentoring emanated from this study, namely structured interaction, clear objectives, target dates, regular reflection on challenges, formal evaluation and remedial action. These principles informed a proposed expatriate mentoring plan.Contribution/value-add: The study contributes both theoretically and empirically to the compilation of an expatriate mentoring plan.

Should I stay or should I go? A systematic literature review about the conceptualization and measurement of international relocation mobility readiness

Purpose Employees’ readiness to relocate abroad plays a crucial role for the success or failure of expatriate assignments. Hence, companies should consider employees’ international relocation mobility readiness (IRMR) when selecting candidates for international postings. However, past research has conceptualized and measured IRMR heterogeneously, hampering the interpretation and comparability of IRMR research results. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a new conceptualization of IRMR and to give recommendations for its measurement. Design/methodology/approach Based on the business, psychological and sociological literature, this paper reviews and categorizes how IRMR has been conceptualized and measured. To structure the findings, a directed content analysis was applied. The sample comprises 88 journal articles. Findings The results reveal that studies seldom provide a conceptualization of IRMR. While the authors often find a misfit between the studies’ explicit conceptualization and the actual measurement of IRMR, most scales actually measure willingness (i.e. usually a predictor of risky and spontaneous behavior). Research limitations/implications Based on the results and the Rubicon model of action phases (Heckhausen and Gollwitzer, 1987), the authors recommend future research to conceptualize IRMR as a dynamic multidimensional construct, covering the different phases of an individual’s decision to relocate internationally. Future, IRMR measurements should also cover the complexity of IRMR, e.g. regarding specific location characteristics. Practical implications Companies should consider the whole decision-making process regarding IRMR to apply specific measures at the best possible time. Originality/value This paper investigates IRMR scales according to their scientific validity and hence provides the basic ground for future scale development studies.