An empirical study of the repatriation of female managers : an emerging issue for European multinationals

In recent years, researchers have paid considerable attention to the issues of adjustment to international assignments, while comparatively little research activity has been paid to the topic of repatriation. Despite the growth in numbers of women in international management, very few studies have been conducted outside North America on the topic of repatriation of female corporate executives. This paper reports on the experiences of re-entry to home organizations and home countries by an exclusively senior sample of female international managers based in western Europe. The findings establish that the repatriation stage of an international career move may be even more stressful than expatriation. The findings also establish that female international managers experience more difficulties than their male counterparts because of their pioneering roles. The paper suggests that home-based mentors and access to networks while abroad are important factors in contributing to the successful repatriation of international managers

Special issue of International Journal of Human Resource Management. A contextualized approach to Talent Management: Advancing the field

Postprint (published version

An empirical study of the international human resource management strategies and practices in British multinationals

PhD Thesi

Talent management: context matters

There is little doubt that the attraction, development, and retention of talent are nowadays one of the most critical challenges faced by companies worldwide. Despite the increasing scholarly attention during the last years many questions remain, particularly, those related to how (and why) talent management (TM) is conceived, implemented and developed within organizations, not to mention about its outcomes or effectiveness. We argue that organizational context has been underappreciated in TM research, which is an omission since context affects the occurrence, meaning and implementation of TM. Therefore, we edited a special issue which seeks to contribute to advance our knowledge of how contextual factors affect the conceptualization, implementation and effectiveness of TM. In this opening article, we offer a brief overview of how context is integrated in previous TM research. We then introduce the four articles in this special issue and their contributions which addresses gap in TM research and, finally, we offer some suggestions on how to improve contextualized TM researchPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Global talent and mobility in a decentralised multinational enterprise

This case examines several key issues and challenges faced by a European-owned, building materials sector multinational enterprise (MNE) that has grown rapidly over the past four decades based largely on an international strategy of cross-border acquisitions. The case highlights links between the business strategy and global talent management and, more particularly, the role of the corporate human resource (HR) function in the context of a company with a culture committed to delivering superior performance through a highly decentralised approach to managing international business operations. The case illustrates some of the complexity of global staffing and talent management issues in developed markets and also in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Asia. The talent management challenges are arguably more acute in these regions due to greater cultural and institutional differences, which results in a particular demand for a distinctive type of managerial talent which can operate effectively in these culturally complex and geographically distant markets (Skuza et al., 2013)

Employee reactions to talent pool membership

Purpose – Despite a large literature on talent management there is very little research on the comparative attitudes of employees in talent pools with those not in talent pools. This is an important omission as employee reactions should influence how effective talent programmes are and how they can be designed and evaluated. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to explore the work-related attitudes of employees who are members and non-members of talent pools. Design/methodology/approach – Matched samples of employees working in a single public sector, scientific organization were surveyed using a standard survey and open questioning to elicit and compare the voices of included and excluded employees. Findings – Employees in talent pools were more positive about their future prospects than employees outside talent pools who reported feelings of lower support from the organization, stronger feelings of unfairness and had lower expectations of the organization’s interest in them. Research limitations/implications – More matched-sample studies are necessary to further understand how employee reactions to talent pool membership are mediated by context. Practical implications – Organizations should consider how employees will react to the design and implementation of talent pools and try to alleviate any adverse reactions. Two threats in particular are the depression of affect among excluded employees and failure to sustain positive affect among the included employees. Originality/value – This is one of very few studies to explore employee reactions to talent programmes in a single organization. The single-site design controls for a large number of variables that confound inter-organizational studies of talent pool membership

Solar Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array — A New View of Our Sun

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a new powerful tool for observing the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. These capabilities can address a broad range of fundamental scientific questions in solar physics. The radiation observed by ALMA originates mostly from the chromosphere—a complex and dynamic region between the photosphere and corona, which plays a crucial role in the transport of energy and matter and, ultimately, the heating of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Based on first solar test observations, strategies for regular solar campaigns are currently being developed. State-of-the-art numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere and modeling of instrumental effects can help constrain and optimize future observing modes for ALMA. Here we present a short technical description of ALMA and an overview of past efforts and future possibilities for solar observations at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. In addition, selected numerical simulations and observations at other wavelengths demonstrate ALMA’s scientific potential for studying the Sun for a large range of science cases

The flexpatriate psychological contract: a literature review and future research agenda

Since the 1980s, research on international assignments (IA) has principally focused on traditional long-term expatriates. However, due to pressures to reduce long-term expatriate assignments and the emergence of a portfolio of more flexible staffing options, there has recently been a growing focus on the deployment of alternative forms of IA. This paper focuses on one form of alternative IA, flexpatriation, where employees undertake frequent international business trips without relocating. More specifically, we critically examine the flexpatriate employment relationship by applying psychological contract theory to yield insight into both the employer and the employee perspectives, which has been neglected in previous research. The article also examines some of the key HR challenges in managing flexpatriates and contributes to both the IHRM and psychological contract literature by presenting an agenda for future research in this area