ABSTRACT
With continued globalization and the removal of barriers between countries, multinational corporations (MNCs) are operating in a growing number of different markets. To staff their various international operations, these companies not only make use of local talent in each respective local market but also deploy talent on a global basis. Over recent years, the group of employees performing their work outside of their home countries has become increasingly fragmented in terms of assignment direction (parent country nationals, host country nationals, third country nationals), assignment length (traditional long-term assignees, short-term assignees, international business travellers, commuter assignees), assignment scope (technical, developmental, strategic, functional) or locus of assignment initiative (company-initiated vs. self-initiated assignees) (Caligiuri, 2006; Collings, Scullion, & Morley, 2007; Mayrhofer, Sparrow, & Zimmermann, 2008). However, overall the number of these international assignments has continued to grow, a trend that even the recent financial crisis does not seem to have changed (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2012).
