Post on 09-Sep-2016
Career interrupted? The case of the self-directed expatriate
Julia Richardson a,*, Mary Mallon b,1
a Atkinson Faculty, School of Administrative Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Canadab Department of Human Resource Management, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Abstract
This paper examines the role of individual agency and the perceived value of international experience for self-directed
expatriation as an increasingly common career choice. Drawing on a study of British expatriate academics, it reports that themes
relating to both agency and structure come into play. Although individual desire for adventure, life change and family concerns
were key incentives to expatriate, participants believed that their subsequent international experience would provide a distinct
advantage in the academic marketplace. The internationalization of higher education was a key theme in these perceptions. The
paper also presents practical recommendations regarding expatriate academics and other self-directed expatriates.
# 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Self-directed expatriation; Career; International mobility; Higher education; Academia; Agency; Structure
www.socscinet.com/bam/jwb
Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420
1. Introduction
I looked at a job in Macau, then I thought would that
have helped my career? It would just sink it; it is too
obscure for an academic . . .. It [Fiji] is a lovely
country to live in but I was worried that careerwise
it’s like they are going to think, three years, this
guy’s been on holiday. (Boris, New Zealand)
Expatriates who are sent overseas by their employer
are the main focus of the expatriate management
literature. Moreover, with only a few exceptions (e.g.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 416 736 2100x33821;
fax: +1 416 736 5963.
E-mail addresses: jrichard@yorku.ca (J. Richardson),
m.mallon@massey.ac.nz (M. Mallon).1 Tel.: +64 6 350 5799; fax: +64 6 350 5796.
1090-9516/$ – see front matter # 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2005.08.008
Inkson, Arthur, Pringle, & Barry, 1997; Riusala &
Suutari, 2000) organizational matters are a dominant
concern (Peltonen, 1998; Welch, 2003). While this
standpoint increases awareness of specific human
resource practices associated with managing more
‘traditional’ expatriates, it neglects individual
dynamics and omits people who expatriate indepen-
dently—i.e. self-directed expatriates. This paper
addresses that gap by examining the experiences of a
group of British expatriate academics in New Zealand,
Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. It
explores what prompted their decision to expatriate and
the extent to which their subsequent experience is seen
to contribute to career development. Self-directed
expatriation is a common feature of many academic
careers, but it is also an increasingly common
dimension of many other careers and organizational
.
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420410
contexts. To that extent, the paper offers a valuable
insight into what is now an important dimension of
international careers and the contexts within which they
evolve.
2. Current thinking on international
experience and career mobility
The organizational benefits of developing and
maintaining a cadre of internationally mobile expatri-
ate managers have been widely acknowledged (e.g.
Aycan, 2001; Suutari, 2003). Where individual careers
are concerned, corporate rhetoric suggests that
international experience is essential for promotion
to senior management. Yet, empirical evidence
suggests that it is inconsistently rewarded where
repatriated managers frequently complain about lack
of recognition and/or reward (Selmer, 1999). This
contradiction is especially problematic given the
findings of one study (Tung, 1997) which reported
that career and financial incentives were the top two
motives for corporate executives seeking and/or
accepting an overseas assignment.
Calls for the internationalization of higher educa-
tion have led to an increasing number of universities
developing strategic international alliances through
cross-border collaboration in both teaching and
research. As a result, international activity is a regular
occurrence in both academic careers (Baruch & Hall,
2004) and campus life more generally. In this context,
it seems intuitively correct to assume that international
experience would be an advantage for career mobility
because faculty with such experience may be better
equipped to manage an international student body and
research agenda (Bird, Osland, Mendenhall, &
Schneider, 1999; Napier, Vu, Ngo, Nguyen, & Vu,
1997). Yet, reflecting the same contradictions that
characterize the corporate arena, the link between
international experience and career mobility in
academia is also unclear. Studies in Canada and the
US, for example, have suggested that while demands
for the internationalization of higher education
continue unabated, international activities receive
only minimal recognition and reward (Knight, 1996;
Mestenhauser, 1996). This paper will address that
contradiction by asking the following research
questions:
� W
hy do academics choose to expatriate?� W
hat role do they think expatriation plays in theircareer development?
The contemporary careers literature offers a useful
platform to understand careers evolving across inter-
national boundaries (Inkson et al., 1997). Focusing on
individual dynamics, it allows exploration of the extent
to which self-directed expatriates, like academics, may
‘sculpt’ (Bell & Staw, 1989) ‘‘their own careers rather
than allowing themselves to become corporate sculp-
tures’’ (Inkson et al., 1997, p. 355). It also allows
exploration of how international experience contributes
to their respective career development and facilitates
more robust theoretical development in the field of
IHRM (Welch, 2003). Thus, we turn now to review
specific debates in that literature.
3. Contemporary debates in career theory
Until recently, career theory was dominated by
organizational perspectives, where career involved
traversing an organizational or occupational hierarchy.
The contemporary literature on academic careers
reflects such views, describing strategies for upward
mobility and the relative positioning of different kinds
of faculty (e.g. Forster, 2001; Mysk, 2001). Indeed, in
most universities, advancement from probation to full
professor corresponds to relatively fixed procedures and
criteria for tenure and promotion decisions (Donaldson
& Emes, 2000; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). The advent
of ‘new economies’ demanding more flexibility,
dynamism and individual responsibility has also given
rise to new conceptions of career as boundaryless,
portfolio or protean (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Hall,
1996). Weick, for example, describes new careers as
‘‘more decoupled from specific organizations, more
proactive and enactive . . . more portable, more
discontinuous, less predictable, and more reliant on
improvisation’’ (Weick, 1996, p. 41). He also argues
that they would have ‘‘proxies for advancement,
development and upward movement’’ (p. 41) such as
an increase in competence rather than a change in job
title. Academia is cited as an example of a ‘‘boundary-
less career’’ (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996, p. 6), with
central concepts of career self-management, changing
psychological contracts with organizations, careers as
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420 411
41
–4
5:
6F,
2M
46
–50
:2
F5
1–
55
:1
F,
2M
F,
6M 8
UA
E;
5F,
3M
6(7
–8
yea
rs);
3F,
3M
3(9
+y
ears
);2
F,
1M
4(7
–8
yea
rs);
1F
;3
M1
(9–
10
yea
rs);
1M
vehicles for lifelong learning, balance and adventure. It
is then a useful exemplar of a ‘new’ career form. Yet, as
noted, it is also played out within the constraints of
existing professional, organizational and social struc-
tures. To that extent academic careers reflect aspects of
both traditional and ‘new’ conceptions of career.
While arguments purporting the move towards
‘boundarylessness’ may be intuitively appealing,
Collin (1998) argues that career ‘‘is not individual
but contextual and relational’’ (p. 42). Dany, Mallon,
and Arthur (2003) further point out that if the
dominant tendency in the past was to treat careers
as properties of organizations, perhaps we are in
danger now of seeing careers as properties of
individuals. This paper will contribute to these debates
by first exploring the extent to which self-directed
expatriation reflects organizational and/or boundary-
less dimensions of career. It will then explore whether
the same dimensions emerge in subsequent accounts
of the role expatriation plays in career development.
Tab
le1
Dem
og
rap
hic
s
Ag
e
26
–30
:1
F3
1–
35
:5
F,
5M
36
–4
0:
1F,
5M
Mar
ital
stat
us
14
mar
ried
;5
F,
9M
16
single
;11
F,
5M
8m
arri
ed+
chil
dre
n;
2
Ho
stco
un
try
7T
urk
ey;
4F,
3M
6S
ing
apo
re;
2F,
4M
9N
ewZ
eala
nd
;5
F,
4M
Pre
vio
us
expat
riat
e
exp
erie
nce
11
(0–
2y
ears
);
4F,
7M
5(3
–4
yea
rs);
4F,
1M
5(5
–6
yea
rs);
3F,
2M
Yea
rsin
ho
stco
un
try
12
(1–
2y
ears
);
8F,
4M
9(3
–4
yea
rs);
3F,
3M
4(5
–6
yea
rs);
4F,
3M
F:
fem
ale;
M:
mal
e.
4. Method
4.1. Constructing the sample
Researchers in cross-cultural management have
suggested that the challenges of conducting research
internationally can be overcome by drawing on
personal contacts (Hutchings, 2003; Von Glinow,
Drost, & Teagarden, 2002). Personal contacts were
indeed very useful for providing access to participants
in all four countries: New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey
and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, choice of
these particular countries was informed by a review of
the expatriate management literature that prompted
the researchers to take into account cultural distance
and English as the medium for teaching.
Through a point of contact in each of the four
countries, an interview was arranged with faculty who
accepted an invitation to take part in the study and who
identified themselves as British expatriates. Non-
probability sampling was used that was neither
random nor claimed to be fully representative of the
total population of self-directed expatriate academics.
Diverse cases were strategically selected from the
potential sample by taking note of age, gender and
marital status as indicated in Table 1. The final sample
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420412
provided a varied population with information about the
topic under study. It comprised self-directed British
expatriate academics in universities in each of the four
countries. All participants intended to return to Britain
at some point in the future, which distinguishes them
from immigrants and emphasises their status as
expatriates. However, we acknowledge that intention
to return may change. All of the participants had
previously held faculty positions in Britain and been in
their host countries for ten years or less.
In-depth interviews elicited accounts in which
participants could describe and interpret their experi-
ences of expatriation in their own words. The first set of
questions explored the decision to expatriate, asking
which themes were more or less influential and the
extent to which they were connected with particular
dimensions of participants’ lives, e.g. professional,
family, etc. The next set of questions explored how
participants evaluated their experience of expatriation.
They focused especially on the criteria for evaluation
and which, if any, were more dominant than others.
Questions exploring the role of expatriation in
academic careers focused on whether participants
thought it would enhance career opportunities.
4.2. Data analysis
A computer assisted qualitative data analysis
system (QSR NVivo) facilitated in-depth analysis,
comparison of accounts and emerging themes and
theory building. Template analysis (King, 1998)
involved creating lists of ‘nodes’ representing the
identified themes. Some of the themes were identified
apriori from the literature review, but the majority
were identified during analysis. ‘‘Trees’’ of nodes
were then constructed that were aligned with the
respective research questions (see Appendices A and
B). These ‘trees’ present the identified themes,
pointing to those which were dominant, e.g. the
search for adventure as an incentive to expatriate, and
to respective subsidiary themes, e.g. the perceived
transience and precariousness of expatriation.
5. Results
We present data in terms of the decision to
expatriate and the perceived contribution of expatria-
tion to career development. Two points are worth
noting. First, all names have been changed in order to
maintain confidentiality and anonymity. Second,
although the boundaries between ‘before and after’
are blurred in retrospective sense-making, most
participants chose to tell their story in the manner of
a linear narrative. They also indulged in prepositional
sense-making (Baumeister & Newman, 1994). That is,
developing propositions from their stories, seeking
more abstract generalisations from their own actions
and identifying causal relationships between those
actions and interpretations (Cohen & Mallon, 2001).
5.1. The decision to expatriate
For 26 of the 30 participants, the opportunity to
expatriate arose unexpectedly through chance meet-
ings at conference and ‘coming across’ advertisements
rather than specifically looking for an overseas
position, for example:
It was out of the blue, I mean I had just given
[someone I met at a conference] my business card
. . . then months later I got this letter saying ‘we’ve
got a vacancy’. (Boris, New Zealand)
Moreover, 16 out of the 17 participants with
previous expatriate experience indicated that seren-
dipity had played a major role in their earlier
experience where opportunities had ‘somehow’ arisen
rather than being the result of a specific plan.
Once the opportunity to expatriate had arisen, there
were three dominant influences on the decision to
expatriate: adventure/travel, life change and family
(see Appendix A). The subsidiary themes centred on
career and money. This finding suggests that
expatriate academics might be different from the
expatriate managers in Tung’s study (1997) noted
above, where career and finances were the major
incentives for an overseas assignment.
5.1.1. Expatriating to experience adventure/travel
The search for adventure/travel dominated twenty
nine accounts and was the most influential of all
themes. As indicated in Appendix A, it had three
subsidiary themes: desire to see more of the world,
search for new experience and desire for an adventure/
challenge. These themes were identified from analysis
of regularly used words and phrases about ‘‘seeing the
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420 413
world’’, ‘‘experiencing adventure or challenge’’ and/
or ‘‘exploring another country’’. The subsidiary theme
‘new experience’ was also closely linked to escape and
another dominant theme ‘the desire for life change’.
The following excerpts provide a flavour of the
adventure/travel theme:
I wanted to see more of the world out there. I kept
thinking did I want to spend the next twenty years
going up and down these stairs into [name of
previous institution] . . .. It was just the desire to
travel that was the main thing. (Dora, New Zealand)
My aim is to see more of the world, certainly more
than CV enhancing activity. Not just to see the
places but to see how people live and meet people.
(Sheena, Singapore)
It is particularly significant that the ‘search for
adventure’ did not appear to have any connection with
a particular demographic. Males and females, those
with and without children and older and younger
participants, were all equally likely to draw on
‘adventure’ as a dominant theme in their decision to
expatriate.
Participants were aware of and drew on a perceived
public image of expatriation as an ‘adventure’/
opportunity for travel. Conrad and Tom, drew on the
reactions of friends and family as evidence of this
image:
If I talk to my friends back in London . . .. I have
friends there, where I grew up and they have never
left their town. Then it looks really wild and
exciting in their eyes. (Conrad, New Zealand)
When other people know that I live here, they often
say to me how brave I am, I mean coming here and
leaving home. They actually say I must be
adventurous so their vision of me is flavoured by
that image. (Tom, Turkey)
Osland’s (1995) image of the hero-adventurer,
although not explicitly drawn on by any participant,
captures the sense of challenge and adventure
embedded in the accounts. ‘Hero talk’ (Osland,
1995, p.12) was also evident as they described
overcoming difficulties and ‘fighting’ to ‘survive’:
Nothing was organised, it was done on a sort of
informal basis. Somebody met me at the airport,
took me to where I was supposed to stay and just left
me there . . . it wasn’t a problem for me actually, but
I know that it was a problem for some people.
(Barry, Turkey)
While the majority of participants spoke of the
‘adventure’ of self-directed expatriation in a positive
way, two potentially negative subsidiary themes arose:
transience and precariousness (see Appendix A).
Arthur, Inkson, and Pringle (1999) suggest that ‘new’
career forms might provide ‘fresh energy’. In this study,
when it came to reflecting on their experience,
participants suggested that the transience and precar-
iousness of self-directed expatriation were in fact a
drain on energy. The more experienced participants
identified both themes as a chronic problem. Reflecting
specifically on how precarious their positions were,
participants in Turkey, UAE and Singapore were
especially concerned that if they lost their jobs they
would have to find other positions very quickly (all had
work permits connected to their current positions) or
leave the country altogether. Many also commented
how they had to plan more carefully with respect to their
financial and physical well-being. While acknowl-
edging these negative dimensions, most participants
accepted and even embraced them as integral to the
‘adventure’. They also acknowledged that they had
been fully aware that expatriation would involve some
element of precariousness before they left Britain. In
fact this awareness had also informed their image of
expatriation as an ‘adventure’ and was thus a key driver
in their decision to expatriate. Despite adopting this
relatively positive approach, it is notable that for the
majority of participants, precariousness and transience
were, nonetheless, identified specifically as negative
dimensions of their experiences.
5.1.2. Expatriating for life change
Eighteen participants drew on life change to explain
their decision to expatriate. Appendix A indicates how
this theme was also linked with opportunities for ‘new
experience’ as a subsidiary theme of the ‘adventure/
travel’ theme. In this case, change implies more than
change of cultural context as suggested by Jerry, below:
I wanted to change my life. I guess I knew that I had to
do something myself otherwise I would be stuck there
[Britain] forever and not ever have been anywhere or
done anything outside of that. (Jerry, Singapore)
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420414
The problems of transience and precariousness
notwithstanding, on this occasion linking life change
with expatriation suggests synergy with the notion of
‘‘fresh energy’’ (Arthur et al., 1999). It also portrays
expatriation as an escape from the perceived boredom
with Britain, a subsidiary theme of ‘life change’, and
an opportunity for self-discovery and re-direction:
I worked in England for two years, actually. I just
got bored. I just didn’t want my life to keep going
like that; I knew that I had to change it—sort of the
only one who could do that kind of thing. I changed
it, I came here. (Barry, Turkey)
Nine participants spread across all four countries
linked the opportunity for change with ‘escape’. Some
were seeking to escape negative working situations.
For others, like Conrad, it was the perceived negative
aspects of living in Britain:
It was almost like a first breaking away. When I look
at it now, all we wanted to [do] was seriously break
away from England. Get away from there and start
somewhere fresh. (Conrad, New Zealand)
This finding explicitly connects the decision to
expatriate with the pre-expatriation context. It also
signals the connectivity between the dominant themes
where escape was a dimension of ‘adventure’ and ‘life
change’ as indicated in Appendix A. Further, there
was no specific link with demographic characteristics
and ‘life change’ as an incentive to expatriate. Again,
males and females, those with or without children and
a partner, and participants of different ages were
equally likely to have expatriated in order to
experience some form of life change.
5.1.3. Expatriating for family reasons
We looked at things that would benefit the entire
family . . ..Thedecisionwasaboutdoingwhatwasbest
for all of us, and here we are! (Joanna, New Zealand)
One of the reasons we came out to New Zealand in
the first place was that we liked the idea of
somewhere for our kids to grow up, and then they
would be able to travel and experience different
cultures along with us. (John, New Zealand)
Age of children did not seem to matter as
participants with very young children were equally
as likely to cite them as an influence as participants
with older teenagers. Yet, 5 of the 16 participants
without children and/or a partner said that it would be
impossible for them to expatriate with a family. Four
of those with children also indicated that having
children limited their choice of countries: ‘‘I don’t
mind staying where I am at the moment but if it
weren’t for them I would probably be looking for
something else in China’’ (Steve, the United Arab
Emirates). This is an interesting if contradictory
finding, where the family, or the perception of a
family, is both an incentive and barrier to expatriation.
Extended family in Britain was also implicated in
the decision to expatriate where, for example, two
participants said that their parents’ death had left them
‘‘free’’ to expatriate. A further eight drew on extended
family as role models, as evidenced by Penny, below:
I’ve got an aged great aunt . . . and she has so many
stories to tell. She lived in Africa with my great
uncle . . . so I would like to think I was following in
her footsteps. (Penny, New Zealand)
5.1.4. Expatriating to enhance career
opportunities
Only Tina said that she had chosen to expatriate
specifically to enhance her career opportunities. Four
participants said that their decision was partly affected
by their careers. Yet, they also explicitly juxtaposed
‘career’ with the ‘desire to travel’, where the latter was
most important as evidenced by Boris:
I thought it might do my career good, which I think
it has professionally, but yes, it was personal mostly
to be honest i.e. the chance to visit another country
which I think is more personal than professional.
(Boris, New Zealand)
Although Tina is an exception, it is instructive to
explore her decision to expatriate further. She was
especially concerned with what was the ‘right’ thing to
do in order to facilitate an ‘‘onward and upward’’
(Arthur et al., 1999) movement in her career. The same
concerns influenced which country and which
institution she chose to work in:
I had always studied my contract quite carefully and
had got a reputable organization and what looked like
a very business-like contract and something that
would be a career progression for me . . .. I wanted it
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420 415
[international experience] I kind of had my life, my
five year plan. (Tina, Turkey)
Her account suggested that she managed her own
career according to her interpretation of the ‘rules’ of
an academic career. In addition, according to her ‘five
year plan’ she had been successful in that she had been
promoted.
5.1.5. Expatriating for financial reasons
Six participants expatriated for financial reasons.
Two participants said finances were a dominant
incentive. Three participants said that finances only
became an issue when they had married and/or had
children as indicated by Jack:
I would not have chosen to work in the Middle East
if I hadn’t felt that I needed a well-paying job for my
family. (Jack, United Arab Emirates)
Four participants were working in the United Arab
Emirates and all four said that they had been able to
make and save a relatively large amount of money.
5.2. The role of expatriation in career mobility
Career was a dominant theme in evaluations of
expatriation where all participants described the
positive implications of having international experience
for their careers (see Appendix B for some of the related
subsidiary themes). They expected it to provide an
‘‘edge’’ in the academic labour market primarily
because of the perceived internationalization of higher
education. Given that 23 of the 30 participants expected
to return to Britain in the near future, it is not surprising
that they drew on the putative internationalization of
higher education in Britain to evaluate their experience.
One participant, who was about to return having spent
four years in New Zealand, said that his international
experience was a major reason why he had been
successful in getting his new promoted position:
I am probably going back to the UK at least five
times better off because I’ve now gone from near the
bottom of the lecturer scale to where I am now. So in
that sense, going out of the country has certainly
helped me. It’s made me go up the scales quicker.
(Boris, New Zealand)
Another participant connected earlier international
experience with a promotion in New Zealand:
One of the things, if I recall correctly about getting the
position was having lived and worked in other
cultures [which] was an advantage and of course I had
plenty of that by that time. (Joanna, New Zealand)
All seven participants who said they were uncertain
of whether they would return to Britain immediately
after their current position also drew on international
experience as a key to enhancing their overall
employability.
Although expatriation was widely understood to
support career mobility, two caveats emerged relating
to positive recognition and marketability: the country
where experience was gained and the activities that
were undertaken. It is notable that these caveats were a
particular concern for participants in the younger age
groups (40 and below) who were at the earlier stages of
their careers. By comparison, although those who
were at the later stages of their careers (particularly the
over 50 group) were aware of the caveats, they were
less concerned about the potential impact on their own
careers. Fifteen participants perceived a hierarchy of
countries and institutions from which overseas
experience could usefully be gained. Boris, quoted
at the beginning of this paper, exemplifies his own
hierarchy as does Penny:
It [New Zealand] is not the centre of the universe but
it’s a good place to get started on an academic
career. (Penny, New Zealand)
There was no single hierarchy, but common themes
emerged where regions such as North America,
Europe, some parts of the Far East and Australasia,
were regarded as useful places to go because of their
influence in the global economy and/or their research
reputation. Conversely, Eastern Europe, Africa and
some countries in the Middle and Far East were seen
as less desirable.
Twenty participants emphasized that for overseas
experience to be recognized and rewarded it must
involve identifiable competencies and knowledge as
determined by their institutional criteria for tenure and
promotion, particularly with regard to research,
teaching and service. Consequently, there was some
anxiety in juggling individually determined incentives
to expatriation, such as the search for adventure and
benefits to family versus the more institutionally
determined criteria for evaluating it. A major concern
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420416
was that their own evaluations of their experience
might not be valued by others; that they might be out
of step with institutional expectations. This concern
was particularly apparent among the younger parti-
cipants who were at the beginning of their careers.
Jerry, for example, was concerned that he might have
‘got it wrong’:
I think my experience [in Singapore] is valuable,
but the perception of some people in Britain, might
be ‘oh yeah, he has gained international experience
but you know—so what? (Jerry, Singapore)
These younger participants were especially con-
cerned about things ‘not working out’. What if they
had misinterpreted the trends towards internationali-
zation of higher education? What if future recruiters
did not recognize their international experience?
6. Discussion
Mitchell, Levin, and Krumboltz’s (1999) notion of
planned happenstance best captures the flavour of the
decision to expatriate: not active in the sense of
consciously striving to find a job overseas, but seizing
an opportunity when it came participants’ way, or even
to their notice. This finding echoes the serendipitous
and adhoc selection of expatriate managers for
overseas assignments identified by Brewster and
Harris (1999), where managers were more likely to
be sent overseas after nominating themselves (or each
other) during coffee breaks than through strategic
selection. Thus, the decision to expatriate indepen-
dently and selection of managers for overseas
assignments may both exhibit the serendipity, flex-
ibility and proactivity of ‘‘new careers’’.
Identifying adventure, life change and family as
dominant incentives to self-directed expatriation
resonates with conceptions of career as synonymous
with lifestyle and bridging the home-work divide (e.g.
Fletcher & Bailyn, 1996). Thus, the study presents
further synergy between conceptions of ‘new’ careers
and expatriate academics. The family’s influence on
the decision to accept an expatriate assignment is
widely acknowledged (Anderson, 2001; Chew & Zhu,
2002; Tharenous, 2002). This study suggests that
immediate and extended family also play a dominant
role in self-directed expatriation where the desire to
broaden family experiences was a particularly
important incentive. Thus, whereas a survey of
corporate expatriates (Windham, 1997) found that
family commitments might be a barrier to expatria-
tion, this study suggests that they might also be a
source of encouragement. This finding reframes the
family-expatriation decision where it is based on
whether the family wants to take advantage of the
opportunities that expatriation presents rather than
whether they are prepared to endure its perceived
difficulties. Although the ‘call to adventure’ (Osland,
1995) was a powerful and rewarding force, the ‘darker
side’ of expatriation was also identified primarily in
themes relating to transience and precariousness.
Viewed as a drain on emotional and physical energy,
these themes clearly challenge the optimism surround-
ing ‘new’ career forms as sources of ‘fresh energy’
(Arthur et al., 1999). Even so, most participants found
ways of managing this ‘darker side’ suggesting that
expatriates may be less ‘fragile’ than suggested by the
literature on expatriate training and adjustment.
Despite this relatively optimistic approach, however,
it is notable that both transience and precariousness
were still specifically identified as negative dimen-
sions of self-directed expatriation.
Unlike studies of expatriate managers (Tung, 1997)
career and money were not dominant incentives to
expatriation for the academics in this study. This
finding might be explained by the differences between
the salaries and benefits packages expatriate aca-
demics might expect compared to those of expatriate
managers/corporate executives. Indeed, participants in
this study said they received far less than corporate
expatriates on an overseas assignment. Moreover, with
the exception of those in the United Arab Emirates,
some commented that they were earning the same or
only a little more than when they were working in
Britain.
Regardless of how it maps out in practice, the
rhetoric of overseas experience as a criterion for
promotion in the corporate arena may explain why it is
a dominant incentive for corporate executives (Tung,
1997). In the academic arena, its perceived role in
career development may be less embedded and/or
rewarded. This may be due to the widespread
understandings of academic careers as characterized
by flexibility and individually determined proxies for
success. Indeed, as this study suggests, although
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420 417
academic careers are also framed by organizationally
determined criteria for success, they do not seem to
influence the decision to expatriate.
Although individual proactivity dominated the
decision to expatriate, participants drew on organi-
zational/structural criteria to explain how their
decision to expatriate would benefit their careers.
In a few cases, expatriation had already contributed
to significant career development. Moreover, as
indicated in Appendix B, there was widespread
perception that internationally experienced faculty
could make a positive contribution to their host
institutions. While on-going employability (a key
theme in new career discourse) underpinned most
evaluations, they were embedded in explicit aware-
ness and reference to two caveats. Both caveats
reflected institutionally determined criteria for
career success: where the experience was gained
and the kind of activities undertaken. This finding
points to the influence of institutional demands and
the role of the ‘‘observer’’ in illuminating a certain
tension between self-directed expatriation and
institutional demands. It also suggests that the
relationship between international experience and
career development is complex and multi-dimen-
sional. This complexity is especially apparent in the
anxiety that the younger participants and those at the
beginning stages of their careers felt about the
impact of their expatriation. Given the disappoint-
ment and disillusion reported by some expatriate
managers returning after an overseas assignment, it
may well be that this anxiety is indeed well-
founded.
The paper contends that expatriate academics and
indeed academic careers more generally, reflect both
traditional and new conceptions of career. This both
challenges and supports the organizational focus of the
expatriate management literature and recent career
theory which accords primacy to individual inter-
pretations and career self-management (Dany et al.,
2003). In effect, it suggests that the two literatures
offer complementary understandings of this form of
self-directed expatriation.
6.1. Limitations of the study
The accounts presented here describe each
participant’s decision to expatriate and their respec-
tive evaluations of expatriation. Yet, each partici-
pant’s account is only one of many possible versions.
The study’s approach to sampling and data analysis
is also a limitation in that selection of host country
was, to some extent, based on personal contacts that
facilitated access. Finally, given that the study
focuses solely on British expatriate academics, the
findings presented here may not apply to other
nationalities.
6.2. Practical implications
The participants in this study believed that their
international experience would enhance their career
development. Yet, Mestenhauser (1996) and Knight
(1996) suggest that this may not be true. In order to
resolve this contradiction, tenure and promotion
policy documents should clearly reflect the value
attributed to international experience and the
specific criteria required for it to be considered
valuable. Given the ‘self-management’ dimension of
academic careers, such a move would support
individual career development and allow for more
transparent recruitment and promotion practices.
The same might be said of other organizational
contexts where other groups of expatriates such as
engineers and medical professionals would have a
clearer idea about the value of their international
experience. Finally, universities would also benefit
from bearing in mind the range of incentives to
expatriation described here and incorporating them
into hiring practices.
Given the paucity of research on self-directed
expatriates, there are many other avenues to explore.
Turning first to academic careers, further research
might explore the extent to which the perceptions
reported here are correct. This might be achieved by
targeting individuals involved in faculty recruitment
and tenure and promotion decisions. In order to
develop a broader understanding of self-directed
expatriation more generally, further research might
also explore the experiences of other self-directed
expatriates. It might also build on some of the
similarities and differences identified here between
expatriate academics, other types of self-directed
expatriates and those sent on an overseas assignment
by their corporate employer.
J.R
icha
rdso
n,
M.
Ma
llon
/Jou
rna
lo
fW
orld
Bu
siness
40
(20
05
)4
09
–4
20
41
8
Appendix A
Tree of themes emerging from research question: why do academics choose to expatriate?
J. Richardson, M. Mallon / Journal of World Business 40 (2005) 409–420 419
Appendix B
Trees of themes emerging from research question: what role does expatriation play in career development?
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