How do you fear? Examining expatriates’ perception of danger and its consequences

Purpose  The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differing perceptions of fear of expatriates operating in terror-exposed Nairobi and the high-crime environment of Johannesburg and its impact on stress and well-being. It illustrates how expatriates cope with the challenges associated with these two regions.   Design/methodology/approach  Following an interpretative and inductive research approach, qualitative content analyses were conducted using evidence from in-depth interviews with 12 expatriates in senior management or officer positions within a large global organisation, with respondents based in South Africa and Kenya.  Findings  Data suggest that expatriates in the more terrorism-exposed context perceive fear less strongly than expatriates in environments categorised by high degrees of conventional crime. Fear seems to relate to physical well-being via restricted freedom of movement, but there is little evidence that fear affects mental well-being. The study finds that respondents in terror-exposed Nairobi tend to engage more in avoidance-oriented coping strategies, whereas their counterparts in the high-crime environment of Johannesburg predominantly rely on problem-focused coping.   Practical implications  The qualitative design allows practitioners to better understand expatriates’ perceptions of fear, its consequences for stress, and well-being and potential coping strategies expatriates employ. It discusses a set of practical recommendations focussing on the deployment of expatriates assigned to dangerous locations.   Originality/value  This study develops a distinction between terror and conventional crime and contributes with practical insights for assignments into dangerous work environments. The geographic lens of the study provides an in-depth look at expatriation challenges in an arguably neglected regional context

Expatriate management in hostile environments from a multi-stakeholder perspective: a systematic review

Purpose The successful management of business expatriates and their families in hostile environments (HE) is a current concern for academics and human resources (HR) practitioners alike. Terrorism and other forms of violent crime have become salient topics on the public agenda, and international organizations are increasingly affected. Hence, scholarly interest in the HR implications for organizations sending staff to HEs has recently grown, and a nascent research area has emerged. This paper is the first systematic review synthesizing emerging literature in the field of expatriate management in HEs and its theoretical foundations, applying a multi-stakeholder perspective. Design/methodology/approach Following accepted review procedures, systematic searches were conducted across three major databases. Manual search in target journals provided additional scrutiny. Findings After analysing 28 articles, four main stakeholders were identified as follows: environments, expatriates, assigning organizations and the expatriates' social networks. Findings reveal the ways of how all stakeholders can affect expatiation success or be affected so that the success of the assignment is jeopardised. Originality/value Our paper illustrates how these diverse articles can be linked within a comprehensive multi-stakeholder framework and provides avenues for future research. We also shift attention to neglected theoretical perspectives that might further improve the understanding of expatriates in HEs while offering actionable guidance for managerial and organizational practices

Working in dangerous contexts: Advancing the conceptual and empirical approach to work in hostile environments

Recent international political and economic developments have led to an increased number of expatriates being assigned to environments characterised as hostile. While expatriation itself already has a long-standing reputation of being a stressful event, the still very limited literature on expatriation in hostile environments (HEs) shows consensus that assignments in hostile regions pose additional stressors that go beyond the need to adjust to a new culture, leading to increased stress for the individual. Increased stress is a phenomenon that is often associated with severe health outcomes such as burnout – a topic that is also relatively new on the expatriate research agenda. This thesis discusses whether expatriates working in hostile, arguably highly stressful, environments are particularly at risk for the development of burnout. It further aims to identify context-relevant factors potentially responsible for the development of burnout and conversely work engagement as its conceptual opposite. Insights are based on a systematic literature review and two empirical studies applying the Job Demands-Resource (JD-R) model (Demerouti et al., 2001) to expatriation in HEs. In-depth interviews with 42 expatriates assigned to HEs, revealed a set of general and HE-specific job and personal demands and resources that form the basis of a context-specific application of the JD-R model for HEs. The proposed model was tested in the subsequent quantitative study, drawing on survey data from 178 expatriates assigned to HEs. Findings imply that particularly high workload, work-life conflicts, cultural novelty, perceived organisational support, job satisfaction and support networks are critical predictors of work related outcomes. Results also suggest that the fear of crime or victimisation seems to be absent, and that expatriates are challenged by and seek support from similar sources as their counterparts in low-risk countries. The studies contribute to the young debate on hostile environments and global mobility, as well as disclosing interesting avenues for future research. This thesis also offers valuable insights for international HR-practitioners discussing HE assignment policies and practices, as well as stress management interventions