Purpose – Multicultural organizations are often argued to hold potential knowledge resources that can be used to increase performance. However, while only a few studies have been undertaken on the subject, linguistic differences are argued to make the use of knowledge and the sharing of...

Purpose – Through a large‐scale quantitative study, this paper aims to test and extend the qualitative findings of Richardson and McKenna and of Osland on reasons to expatriate and relate them to work outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Examining how reasons to expatriate may affect...

Purpose – Job engagement has attracted much attention recently. However, very little research distinguishes between how the context may affect different engagement dimensions differently. Based on a theory of resource exhaustion, the purpose of this paper is to focus on a cognitively demanding...

Purpose: A growing number of academics relocate abroad to work as expatriates in the university sector. While this employee group seems to have a highly constructive influence on the performance of university organizations, some problems in relation to effective inclusion of these individuals...

Western European and North American expatriate managers on the Chinese mainland responded to a mail survey about their sociocultural and psychological adjustment. The results indicated that Western European managers were less well socioculturally adjusted than their North American counterparts,...

Male expatriate spouses represent a surprisingly under‐researched area, especially given the crucial importance of spousal support to ensure successful expatriate assignments and the increasing trends of both dual‐career couples and female business expatriates. To somewhat alleviate this...

The quest of globalizing business firms to find enough candidates with the requisite skills for foreign assignments may be met by former “third‐culture kids”. These are individuals who as adolescents have lived in a foreign country for a period of time. The cultural exposure, during their...

Purpose – Joint ventures remain the largest group of foreign‐invested enterprises in China. Given the high level of potential conflict, this paper examines whether Western expatriates in joint ventures benefit from cross‐cultural training. Design/methodology/approach – A mail...

Purpose – The purpose of this pioneering study is to explore spillover effects between non‐work and work adjustment of public sector (PS) expatriates. Design/methodology/approach – US Department of Defense (DoD) administrators assigned to US embassies world‐wide were targeted by a...