Self-Initiated Expatriate’s Adjustment: A Neglected Terrain

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In this age of globalization, organizations are placing greater emphasis on attracting, developing, and retaining an international workforce that can operate effectively in a hyper-competitive global marketplace. Traditionally the concept of an international workforce has been associated with the use of long-term expatriate assignments, in other words, corporate expatriates, which we classify from here on as traditional expatriates. In more recent times, research has highlighted the growing importance of different forms of long-term assignments (for example, inpatriate and third-country assignments) and alternative forms (for example, short-term international assignments, commuter assignments, and international frequent flyers). These have emerged as the main focus of recent research studies (Collings, Scullion, and Morley, 2007; Collings, McDonnell, Gunnigle, and Lavelle, 2010; Mayrhofer, Reichel, and Sparrow, 2012). There is also an ever-increasing research agenda on self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), that is, non-corporate international assignments. Suutari and Brewster (2000), building on the work of Inkson, Pringle, Arthur, and Barry (1997), proposed the idea of SIEs as representing a means for organizations to build an international workforce beyond the more common means of transferring staff between subsidiaries of a multinational enterprise (MNE). According to Suutari and Brewster (2000), SIEs are individuals who move to a country outside of their own and take up employment on local terms. Consequently, the foremost differentiation with traditional expatriates is that the SIE is responsible for the move and securing the position themselves; they are not transferred by their organization to another worldwide subsidiary.