Managing Expatriates of Emerging Multinationals : An Institutional Work Perspective

This chapter proposes that institutions in host and home countries jointly determine expatriate management in emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Meanwhile, global work undertaken by expatriates in EMNEs dynamically shapes home and host institutions. Drawing from the institutional work perspective, this study identifies six forms of global work – boundary work, cultural work, identity work, practice work, strategy work and value work – to investigate the mechanism that underpins the institutional work and expatriate management. This chapter further examines the role of human resource management (HRM) in strategically managing expatriates and their assignments in a dynamic context. Demystifying global work in Chinese MNEs is illustrated through a cross-case qualitative comparison study. The chapter outlines general directions for future study on global work in the international business context. Full paper available at https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786437105.00018