The Effect of International Work Experience on the Career Success of Expatriates: A Comparison of Assigned and Self‐Initiated Expatriates

• Author: Liisa Mäkelä,Michael Dickmann,Chris Brewster,Vesa Suutari,Christelle Tornikoski
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21827
• Date: 01 January 2018
• Published date: 01 January 2018

Human Resource Management, January–February 2018, Vol. 57, No. 1. Pp. 37–54

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21827

Correspondence to: Vesa Suutari, Professor, Department of Management, University of Vaasa, P.O. Box 700, 65101

Vaasa, Finland, Ph: +358 29 449 8433, Fax: +358 6 317 5210, vsu@uva.fi

THE EFFECT OF INTERNATIONAL

WORK EXPERIENCE ON THE

CAREER SUCCESS OF EXPATRIATES:

A COMPARISON OF ASSIGNED AND

SELF-INITIATED EXPATRIATES

VESA SUUTARI, CHRIS BREWSTER, LIISA MÄKELÄ,

MICHAEL DICKMANN, AND CHRISTELLE TORNIKOSKI

This article is one of the fi rst to examine the long-term effect of expatriation on

careers, comparing the impact of international work experience on the career suc-

cess of assigned and self-initiated expatriates. Our sample consists of employ-

ees 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 fi nd that the

long-term impacts of international work experience on career success are gener-

ally 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 inter-

nal jobs to assigned expatriates. This reinforces the need for further research and

for companies to see all those with international experience as important ele-

ments of the workforce. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: career success, careers, expatriates, international work experience,

self-initiated expatriates

Introduction

International career researchers have increas-

ingly been interested in establishing the effects

of international work experience on careers.

The early research, which often focused on

the reintegration of assigned expatriates (AEs)

back into the home organization after repatria-

tion, argued fairly consistently that expatriation

was not a career-enhancing move (Derr & Oddou,

1991; Forster, 1994; Harvey, 1989), albeit with

considerable variation in the results across dif-

ferent studies. Recent studies (Kraimer, Shaffer, &

Bolino, 2009) report similar problems. The issues

returning expatriates experience are created by a

failure of the organization to value their acquired

skills, the loss of status on the return home, and

reverse culture shock (Suutari & Brewster, 2003).

Hamori and Koyuncu (2011) found that interna-

tional work experience slows the ascent of execu-

tives to the top, an effect exacerbated by longer

and repeat assignments.

38 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2018

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

We have known

for some time that

the proportion of

AEs leaving their

organization on

repatriation is far

higher than the

normal turnover

of their non-AE

counterparts.

and SIEs? Four issues are worth considering in

examining this question.

The first is linked to the definition of career

success, which was theoretically categorized as

early as the 1930s into objective and subjective

forms. Objective success was defined by Hughes

(1937, 1958) as directly observable and measur-

able via attainments such as pay, promotions,

and occupational status that are verifiable by an

impartial third party. Subjective success was based

on the feelings experienced by the person engaged

in his/her career (Heslin, 2005), usually measured,

for instance, through job or career satisfaction. In

expatriation in the managerial and professional

spheres, the success of a career is often assessed

on the basis of pay, promotion, and occupational

status. Consequently, from the organizational

viewpoint, the fact that an expatriate or employee

leaves the organization after an international

experience is usually seen as a failure by the orga-

nization. However, from the perspective of the

individual, leaving an employer might be a logi-

cal career step. So whether an objective or subjec-

tive perspective is adopted affects the answer to

our main question on the impact of international

work experience on career success.

The second issue is the context in which an

international experience is used after the assign-

ment. That context has been shown to affect

career success; for instance, internal labor mar-

kets may work less than perfectly (Dickmann &

Doherty, 2008), and international work experi-

ence may hinder career progress after the assign-

ment (Benson & Pattie, 2008). We have known

for some time that the proportion of AEs leaving

their organization on repatriation is far higher

than the normal turnover of their non-AE coun-

terparts (Gregersen & Black, 1995). Given the

investment in expatriates, this may be consid-

ered inadequate human resource management.

However, from an individual’s viewpoint, this

may not look as bad, either in the short or longer

term, if it facilitates getting an interesting and

challenging—or a higher-paid—job with another

company. Those who reach the peak of organi-

zations (CEOs) and have international experi-

ence are more likely to be recruited externally

(Daily, Certo, & Dalton, 2000), indicating that

external markets may value such international

experience more than internal job markets. So

whether the international work experience is

offered to or valued by the internal labor market

or the external one might affect views of career

success.

The third issue is that career success might

be perceived differently depending on when the

evaluation is made. Most repatriation studies

It has been argued that the nature of careers

has changed and companies may now value

international work experience more than they

did previously (Hamori & Koyuncu, 2011).

Human capital theory predicts that developmen-

tal job experiences (such as international assign-

ments) provide valuable learning that should

have a positive impact on employees’ long-term

careers within and/or beyond their organiza-

tions (Benson & Pattie, 2008; Kraimer et al., 2009;

Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005). It may be

that international work experience improves the

opportunity to obtain a top management position

(Magnusson & Boggs, 2006; Ng et al., 2005) and

a better salary (Carpenter, Sanders, & Gregersen,

2001; Daily, Certo & Dalton, 2000). However, fur-

ther research is clearly needed (Benson & Pattie,

2008; Cappellen & Janssens, 2005; Hamori &

Koyuncu, 2011; Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen, & Bolino,

2012).

International work experi-

ence can be gained either within

an employing organization or

independently, that is, through

working abroad as an assigned

expatriate (AE) or as a self-ini-

tiated expatriate (SIE). AEs nor-

mally move to fill a position in a

subsidiary of the same organiza-

tion abroad (Suutari & Brewster,

2000), and much of the relevant

literature indicates that their for-

eign assignments are driven by

and connected to organizational

and individual career and devel-

opment considerations (Bolino,

2007; Edström & Galbraith, 1977;

Stahl, Miller, & Tung, 2002). Career

structure seems to be highly impor-

tant for AEs, and there is some indication that

their career progression can be faster than that

of nonexpatriated peers (Doherty & Dickmann,

2012). In contrast, SIEs make their own way

(Richardson & Mallon, 2005; Suutari & Brewster,

2000) and tend to work with a new employer

abroad (Andresen, Bergdolt, Margenfeld, &

Dickmann, 2014). SIEs normally show substan-

tial career agency. The career drivers of AEs and

SIEs are distinct, with the former being much

more motivated by objective career and devel-

opment considerations (Andresen, Biemann &

Pattie, 2012; Doherty, Dickmann & Mills, 2011).

Intuitively, it seems likely that the career effects

of their sojourn abroad will be different, raising

the question: Are the impacts of international work

experience on career success different between AEs