Browsing by Author "Suutari, Vesa"

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    Acting in the spirit of the whole: expatriate careers between the poles of personal intentions and of company and country policies
    (University of Bamberg Press, 2022-10-17) Andresen, Maike; Dickmann, Michael; Suutari, Vesa
    Expatriation has received a lot of research attention over the years due to the importance of expatriates to organizations as well as extensive impacts such international work experience has on expatriates themselves. To generate a better understanding about expatriation, it is essential to understand things in context, as "Every event and everything must come into being as a result of causes and conditions." (Dalai Lama, 1998). In this chapter we discuss four topics areas that we see as important issues in the international careers of expatriates and that have been studied within the GLOMO project. We also connect the themes of the following chapters with these four areas and briefly introduce the chapters. First, we discuss expatriates’ career paths, the career capital they develop abroad and thus may be able to utilize afterwards, and the impacts of expatriation on the longer-term career success of individuals. Second, expatriates’ identities, well-being and embeddedness are discussed. Third, we introduce some key global mobility management challenges that companies face when managing expatriation. Finally, the role of the host country in expatriation is discussed as an additional theme that has received less attention in earlier research.
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    The career competencies of self-initiated and assigned expatriates: assessing the development of career capital over time
    (Taylor and Francis, 2016-05-04) Dickmann, Michael; Suutari, Vesa; Brewster, Chris; Mäkelä, Liisa; Tanskanen, Jussi; Tornikoski, Christelle
    Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals’ career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; ‘knowing how’, ‘knowing whom’, ‘knowing why’ and find that company assigned expatriates learn more than self-initiated expatriates. All three career capital areas benefit from international experience and all are increasingly valued over time. Based on our findings, we conclude that a dynamic notion of career capital acquisition and use is needed. Managerial implications include the need for a wider view of talent management for international businesses.
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    Career success of expatriates: the impacts of career capital, expatriate type, career type and career stage
    (Emerald, 2023-07-21) Mello, Rodrigo; Suutari, Vesa; Dickmann, Michael
    Purpose This paper investigates whether career capital (CC) development abroad, expatriate type, career type, and career stage affect expatriates’ career success in terms of perceived marketability and the number of promotions. Design/methodology/approach The study presents findings from a 2020 follow-up study among 327 expatriates, including assigned expatriates (n=117) and self-initiated expatriates (n=220), who worked abroad in 2015 and 2016. Among that group, 186 had continued their international career, while 141 had repatriated. Structural equation modeling with robust maximum likelihood estimation was used to test this study’s hypotheses. MPlus 8.6 software supported the analysis. Findings The study outlines that CC developed abroad positively impacts perceived marketability and the number of promotions. Second, repatriates reported a greater degree of perceived marketability than those continuing an international career. Career type did not predict the number of promotions. The expatriate type did not influence any of the career success measures. Finally, expatriates in their late career stage did not achieve a similar level of career success as those in other career stages. Research limitations/implications All the expatriates were university-educated Finnish engineers and business professionals, and the career benefits of expatriation could differ for different sample groups. The study calls for more context-sensitive global careers research. The findings have positive implications for self-guided career actors considering working abroad. Organizations could focus more of their global talent attraction, management, and career efforts on self-initiated expatriates.
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    Careers of self-initiated expatriates: exploring the impact of context
    (Emerald, 2023-08-16) Andresen, Maike; Suutari, Vesa; Muhr, Sara Louise; Barzantny, Cordula; Dickmann, Michael
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    The effect of international work experience on the career success of expatriates: a comparison of assigned and self-initiated expatriates
    (Wiley, 2017-07-12) Suutari, Vesa; Brewster, Chris; Mäkelä, Liisa; Dickmann, Michael; Tornikoski, Christelle
    This paper examines the long-term effect of expatriation on careers, comparing the impact of international work experience on the career success of assigned and self-initiated expatriates. Our sample consists of employees who were working abroad in 2004 and we examine their subjective and objective career success eight years later. Despite the ‘dark side of international careers’ arguments associated with the repatriation literature, we find that the long-term impacts of international work experience on career success are generally positive and mainly unrelated to whether the work experience was acquired as an assigned or self-initiated expatriate. Companies recruit employees with international experience externally but are much more likely to offer further internal jobs to assigned expatriates. This reinforces the need for further research and for companies to see all those with international experience as important elements of the workforce.
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    The future of global mobility
    (HENRY (Finland), 2021-11-10) Mello, Rodrigo; Suutari, Vesa; Escobar-Borruel, Inés; Biswas, Tania S.; Dickmann, Michael
    This article presents different kinds of international work featured in the literature, and a number of new strategic trends following the COVID-19 pandemic, identified in recent interviews with the heads of global mobility units in 22 European companies. Given our findings, which describe the extensive impacts of the crisis on global mobility, we make two main recommendations for MNCs: (1) they need to reconsider global mobility policies in a new situation after the COVID pandemic; and (2) invest in overcoming operational and legal challenges, to reduce uncertainties among globally mobile employees surrounding the use of flexible and remote working arrangements.
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    Taking stock of expatriates’ career success after international assignments: a review and future research agenda
    (Elsevier, 2022-04-22) Mello, Rodrigo; Suutari, Vesa; Dickmann, Michael
    This systematic literature review explores studies addressing the objective career success and subjective career success of company-assigned and self-initiated expatriates after their long-term international assignments. Expatriate work is defined as high-density work that affects employee learning and career trajectories. We develop a holistic expatriate career success framework exploring the following questions: 1) What individual career impact results from international assignments? 2) What are the antecedents of such career success? and 3) What are the outcomes of assignees’ career success? A previously neglected range of theoretical perspectives, antecedents, and outcomes of expatriate career success is identified. Subsequently, a threefold contribution is made. First, we extend the conceptualization of international work density to unveil the differences between general and global career concepts. Second, we identify promising theories that have not been utilized in expatriation research, emphasizing context-related and learning theories that chime with the specific nature of global careers. Lastly, we suggest an extensive future research agenda.