Abstract:
This article explores the motives of individuals to accept international
assignments. It uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research
methods to further our understanding of how important a variety of items are in
the decision to work abroad. Employing a mutual dependency perspective it
contrasts individual motives and organizational perspectives. Organizations
significantly underestimate the importance of career, work/life balance and
development considerations and overestimate the financial imperative and some
family motives. The analysis showed that for individuals some of these factors
significantly relate to outcome variables in terms of the perceived career
capital accrued from assignments. The study presents a more nuanced picture of
influence factors on the decision to go and advocates the use of context-
sensitive, multiple perspectives. Practical implications for multinational
organizations are discussed.
