ABSTRACT

International assignments have long since represented a critical mechanism by which organisations that operate on a global scale can effectively manage and develop their global operations. Such assignments serve multiple purposes including management development, coordination and control, information exchange and succession planning (Black et al., 1999; Edstrom and Galbraith, 1977; Harzing, 2001). For employees, it is claimed that international assignments are ‘the single most influential force for the development of managers’ (Stroh et al., 2005) and can contribute significantly to the development of one's career in the global organisation. Much of the research surrounding international assignments has centred around ‘traditional’ international assignments – purpose driven transfers to a foreign location with a duration of between 12 and 36 months (Dowling et al., 2008) and up to 60 months. This is unsurprising as historically such assignments have represented the most dominant form of global staffing arrangement (Collings et al., 2007) and recent indications suggest that assignments of this duration remain prevalent amongst organisations (McDonnell et al., 2011; Brookfield GMAC, 2013).