Problems faced by Western expatriate managers in East Europe : evidence among Finnish expatriates in Russia and Estonia

A common human resource management strategy among Western companies in international operations is the use of home-country expatriate managers although expatriate adjustment has been found to involve difficulties. In the light of this the present study analyses the issues faced by Finnish expatriate managers working in Russia or Estonia. Three aspects were studied: adaptation to society, adaptation at the work place, and company-level management problems with which expatriates have to deal in their managerial job. The results indicate that various kinds of problems appear in all these areas and that the preparation of both expatriates and companies entering these markets was usually inadequate.Eine unter westlichen Unternehmen alltägliche Personalmanagementstrategie ist der Einsatz von Managern aus dem Mutterland des Unternehmens, obwohl die Eingliederung von Mitarbeitern anderer Staatsbürgerschaft mit Problemen behaftet ist. Vor diesem Hintergrund analysiert die vorliegende Studie die Schwierigkeiten, denen finnische Manager bei der Arbeit in Rußland oder Estland begegnen. Drei Aspekten wurde dabei besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet: Anpassung an die Gesellschaft, Anpassung an den Arbeitsplatz und Managementprobleme auf der Unternehmensebene; alles Probleme, mit denen ausländische Manager in ihrer Arbeit umgehen müssen. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, daß in allen diesen Gebieten verschiedenartige Probleme auftreten, und daß sowohl die Vorbereitung der Manager auf ihren Auslandseinsatz als auch die Vorbereitung der Unternehmen, die in diese Märkte eintreten, in der Regel unangemessen war.Reprint. Original version: Suutari, Vesa (1998). Problems faced by Western expatriate managers in Eastern Europe : evidence provided by Finnish expatriates in Russia and Estonia. Journal for East European Management Studies 3(3), 249-267. http://hdl.handle.net/10419/90229fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Repatriation of international dual‐career couples

Combining the realities of dual-career couples (DCCs) and the requirements of international careers can be difficult. In order to improve the understanding of the repatriation experiences of international DCCs, we conducted interviews with both partners in 14 DCCs. Contrary to expectations, the majority of the interviewed couples reported very successful repatriation experiences and only a few adjustment challenges were raised. The interviews address the factors explaining such repatriation adjustment issues, and also elicit four key factors (active self-management of the expatriation process, earlier experience of expatriation and repatriation, the successful integration of work life and family life, and the realization of dual-career interests upon repatriation) connected with successful repatriation adjustment experiences.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The global chameleons : the impact of early life international exposure on the career capital of adult third culture kids

Purpose The purpose of the present study is to explore the effects of early life international exposure on the career capital (CC) of adult third culture kids (ATCKs). Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative research design based on 34 semi-structured interviews with ATCKs who have had international exposure in their childhood as members of an expatriate family. Findings The results show that a globally mobile childhood has extensive long-term impacts on ATCKs' CC in the areas of knowing-why, knowing-how and knowing-whom. Additionally, their early international experience also had several negative impacts across these aspects of CC. Originality/value This paper provides a novel understanding of the long-term impacts of early life international exposure on ATCKs' CC, and this paper is the first study to use the CC framework among an ATCK population.©2023 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Development of career capital during expatriation : partners' perspectives

Purpose The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the effects of expatriation on the development of career capital among the partners of expatriates. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on in-depth interviews with 30 Finnish partners of expatriates. Findings The results reflect the various learning experiences reported by partners of expatriates that developed their career capital during expatriation. The learning experiences related to the experience of living abroad itself and to the specific activities undertaken when abroad. The extent to which partners developed knowing-why, knowing-how and knowing-whom career capital was found to partly reflect their situation abroad as stay-at-home partners or as employees in less-demanding or more-demanding jobs. Though the experiences were developmental for all partners as have been reported among expatriates, the authors also identified several aspects in which partners' experiences differed from the typical developmental experiences of expatriates. Practical implications The results also highlight the influence of initiative, an active role and career self-management skills in partners' career capital development. Originality/value This paper advances the understanding of how expatriation affects expatriate partners' career capital, a topic that has not previously been studied in-depth.© Kaisu Kanstren and Vesa Suutari. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcodefi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Satisfaction with an expatriate job : the role of physical and functional distance between expatriate and supervisor

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to focus on satisfaction with an expatriate job and how such satisfaction is linked to leadership. Specifically, this research examines how two different kinds of distances – physical distance and functional distance – between an expatriate and his/her supervisor are related to satisfaction with the expatriate job. Design/methodology/approach - The study was conducted among 290 Finnish expatriates. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in order to test the research hypothesis. Findings - The results show that low functional distance with a supervisor is related to greater satisfaction with the expatriate job. The physical distance is not directly connected to expatriate job satisfaction, but the common effect of the two types of distance shows that among those whose functional distance is low, working in the same country with the leader is linked to greater expatriate satisfaction than recorded among those who were physically distant. Interestingly, expatriates with high functional distance are more satisfied with the expatriate job if they work in a different country to their supervisor. Originality/value - This study makes a contribution in three areas; first, it addresses the understudied phenomena of international work-specific job satisfaction, specifically satisfaction with an expatriate job. Second, it provides new knowledge on the outcomes of leader distance in the context of expatriation, a work situation that is inherently related to changes in physical location and to organizational relationships. Third, it contributes to leadership literature and highlights the importance of the conditions and the context in which leadership occurs.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Short-term Assignees, International Business Travellers and International Commuters

© Cambridge University Press 2020. This material has been published in revised form Global Mobility and the Management of Expatriates edited by Bonache, J., Brewster, C. & Froese, F.J. [http://doi.org/10.1017/9781108679220]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Typologies of internationally mobile employees

When counting the number of internationally mobile employees (IMEs) and analyzing the consequences of international mobility in order to improve the management of different kinds of IMEs, who counts as an expatriate (and its variants) is of crucial importance. Yet there is no consensus on a single definition of, for example, a “selfinitiated expatriate” or a “migrant” (Anderson and Blinder 2015). Tharenou (2015), in a comparative review of the literatures on assigned expatriates (AEs), self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) and skilled immigrants, recently warned not to combine these conceptually distinct groups of globally mobile individuals, as doing so contaminates the results, posing a threat to the validity of our findings. In pursuit of exactness, preciseness and completeness, we find many authors who seek to define (new) types of IMEs based on an increasing number of criteria. We want to question the added value of doing so and formulate a plea for a sound theory of expatriation types.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Chapter 12 Conclusions

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the impact of the ‘home country’ in self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) research. It describes the role of international human resource management (IHRM) in the management of SIEs and point out that little attention has been paid to the opportunities there are for IHRM to play a significant role in supporting SIEs in their careers. The book discusses how cultural distance between the home and the host country impacts expatriates’ willingness to relocate abroad. It also discusses a rather new topic: how the language competence of SIEs impacts their foreign experience. The book utilizes stage models of life, career, and family as well as the social chronology framework to identify major elements and processes of the career transition of SIEs

The Factors Contributing to Work/Life Conflicts and Enrichment Among Finnish Global Careerists

It has been argued (see, e.g., Haslberger and Brewster 2008; Lazarova, Westman, and Sheffer 2010; Mäkelä, Känsälä, and Suutari 2011; Mäkelä and Suutari 2011) that expatriates have difficulties balancing work with the rest of their lives. Our understanding of the issues and factors contributing to the work/non-work balance is limited. To increase our understanding of these issues, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with Finnish global careerists, each of whom had spent most of their working lives outside their home country. The results of the study indicate that, besides facing conflicts, global careerists benefit from the interface of their work and non-work life. Several work-domain, non-work domain, and individual factors were identified. We argue that the literature regarding the work/life balance needs to take into account context-related factors and to put more emphasis on the perspective of enrichment.©2014 Journal of Finnish Studies, University of Illinois Press.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The Long-Term Effects of Self-Initiated Expatriation on the Future Careers of Assignees

©2021 This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Self-initiated expatriates in context: recognizing space, time, and institutions on 2 October 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429352690fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed