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MORGAN CHAMBERS:
There are a range

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of issues considered
important for moving abroad

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for expatriates.

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Noeleen, you make a
distinction between two types

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of expatriates.

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Can you just talk a little
bit about what they are?

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: Sure.

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Well, there are many
mobile populations now

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we're beginning to realize
within the research literature

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indeed.

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Two of the key groups are
corporate-assigned or assigned

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expatriates, company-backed.

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And another key group are the
self-initiated expatriates.

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And self-initiated
being those people who

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take the decision themselves
and fund their own stay abroad.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS: Having
identified the two

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different groups, they do
have a number of things

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in common, however.

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Would you like to just talk
a little bit about what

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those commonalities are?

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: Sure.

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The self-initiated expatriate
and the corporate expatriate

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do have some baseline
commonalities.

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Self-initiated corporates,
people, obviously

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have a motivation and
a drive to move abroad

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for the foreign experience.

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They often have a great
desire for adventure.

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They like to travel, like
to see different places,

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and have a real drive to
go abroad and move away

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from their home location and
go and stay in a host location.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS:
So your findings

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have identified eight factors in
the model that you've described,

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and there are some
subtle differences there.

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Can you talk to what
some of those differences

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might be for the two groups?

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: OK.

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The range of factors that drives
the motivation to move abroad

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cover a large number of areas.

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And that includes
the location, what

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location that the person
is going to go to.

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It includes career issues.

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It includes family
considerations.

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And when we looked at
the two different groups,

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we found that for
self-initiated expatriates,

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they were significantly
more motivated, more

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influenced by the motivation
around location and host

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reputation.

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Interestingly, that would
probably be a factor of the fact

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that they choose the
destination themselves,

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whereas company-backed
expatriates are

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sent to a particular location.

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On the other hand,
company-backed expatriates

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were more driven by
the career factors,

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what was in it in terms of
career benefit and career

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development.

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So they were distinguished quite
clearly on those three assets.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS: So
the career factors,

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do you want to just
elaborate a little bit more

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on what they are?

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: Obviously, for
a corporate-backed expatriate,

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career drivers are one
of the key major issues

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that they take
into consideration.

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Companies actually position
an international assignment

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as a career benefit.

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Now, there's a
whole area of doubt

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around whether or
not that actually is

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realized when they come back.

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But certainly, as
one of the come-ons

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to take up an
international assignment,

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companies usually position
it of a career benefit.

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Self-initiated
expatriates tend to

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or seem to at least consider a
career as part of a much more

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holistic life
development process

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through the
international assignment.

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So career drivers are not
the major or primary drivers

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for them, rather they're
a secondary driver.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS:
So there could be

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indeed some important
implications for these two

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distinctions and the other
factors that are involved.

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What would be some of the
implications to think about,

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or what were some of
the questions that

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were raised for you as a
result of the implications?

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: Yes,
I think there are

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some very clear implications.

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If we look at it
from the first point,

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from an organizational
perspective,

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there have been
some doubt raised

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about the utility of a
self-initiated expatriates

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to a corporation,
particularly around the nature

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of their risky behavior.

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They're very driven
to be mobile.

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They're very self-assertive.

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And so therefore, they get
up and go when they need to

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or when they feel
like they want to.

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And obviously, many
companies wouldn't

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want to have that level
of self-driven behavior.

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And therefore, they can be
perceived by organizations

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to be a little bit
risky, possibly,

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not falling within
their particular HR

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strategy or policy.

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Organizations don't tend to have
particular strategies already

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developed to manage the
self-initiated populations.

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And so they could be
perceived as a group

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that organizations don't take
as a part of their core employee

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grouping.

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And I think from an individual
point of view, the issue around

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what benefit they might accrue
from being abroad, certainly,

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there's a literature
that suggests

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that corporate expatriates
sometimes don't always

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accrue the benefit
when they come home.

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And it's also been shown by
very few studies at the moment

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that self-initiated
expatriates might also suffer

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from that when they repatriate.

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The career capital,
the skills, knowledge,

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and abilities that they're able
to develop while abroad might

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not always be considered
positively by companies when

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they come back again.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS: So
you've identified

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a number of implications there.

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There's still more work
to be done, more questions

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to be answered.

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NOELEEN DOHERTY:
Certainly, there's

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not a very large research base
on self-initiated expatriation.

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It is growing, but
there are many questions

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still around from a
corporate point of view.

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What sort of asset could
they be to the company?

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What sort of
motivations and drivers

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could the organization
plan more carefully

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for with respect to hiring
self-initiated expatriates?

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And also, how do
these people integrate

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with the corporate
employees that they

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are existing employees.

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From an individual
point of view,

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we still know very little
about what drives people.

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We still don't know what the
differences are between people

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moving from developed to
developing, or developing

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to developing countries from a
self-initiated point of view.

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And also from an
individual level,

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what sort of career
capital they accrue,

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what sort of skills,
knowledge, and abilities

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they are able to
gather and develop

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while they are having
a foreign experience.

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And how they can then use those
in a career sense as well.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS: So
you started to answer

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some of these questions
for human resources

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professionals and organizations,
but clearly still more issues

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are raised.

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: Yes,
many more issues,

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particularly from a
corporate point of view

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and also from an
individual point of view.

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MORGAN CHAMBERS:
Thank you, Noeleen.

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NOELEEN DOHERTY: Thank you.

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