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Dear colleagues (apologies for cross-posting),
I am emailing to inform you that we have extended the submission deadline for the special issue of Human Resource Management Journal ‘New Avenues in International Careers Research’ until May 3. Please see the details below
Best wishes
Elaine Farndale
New Avenues in International Careers Research Call for Papers
Guest Editors: Adam Smale, Jon Briscoe, Michael Dickman, Wolfgang Mayrhofer and Emma Parry
New Submission Deadline: 3 May 2017
In this special issue we invite theoretical and empirical contributions that speak to one of the following three avenues of research, which we believe deserve greater scholarly attention: the contextual embeddedness of careers, comparative career research, and career management in MNCs. A short background behind these research avenues and some suggestions for corresponding research questions are presented below.
Research on ‘global careers’ to date has been dominated by work on the career attitudes and behaviours of expatriates at the individual level, and more recently on other less traditional forms of international mobility such as self-initiated expatriates, short-term assignees, and international business travellers (Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen & Bolino, 2012). Whilst this represents an important body of work, our understanding of careers in the international context remains piecemeal without simultaneously including other groups of employees and drawing upon alternative perspectives, levels of analysis and related fields of inquiry. We believe this can be addressed through the pursuit of three broad avenues of research into international careers.
Contextual Embeddedness of Careers – Every nation has its own unique sets of institutional arrangements, deep-seated values, attitudes, and beliefs. They inform and are reflected in the ways that the society and the economy operate, and the ways that people work and are managed at work. Career planning, promotion decision-making, individual career decisions, and career preferences have been shown to differ between institutional contexts and cultural values such as future orientation, power distance and individualism (e.g. Chong, 2013; Dany, Mallon, & Arthur, 2003; King, 2003; Schaubroeck & Lam, 2002). However, the majority of careers research has been carried out within single countries, predominantly the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries. This has contributed to a general lack of understanding about the nuances of career-related concepts and the heterogeneous views on careers possessed by individuals around the world. Indeed, institutional and cultural perspectives on careers remain largely overlooked in most careers research.
Key research questions that could help to address this are, for example:
· How do culture, institutional context, and other macro factors impact conceptions of career, and career success? To what extent can they be meaningfully compared across cultures?
· To what degree does the concept of career and career success exist in “nature”? If it does exist, to what degree is this defined by individual-level factors (e.g. self-directed career behaviour, personality) versus higher-level factors (e.g. cultures, economies, educational levels, or generations)?
· At the structural level, which context-specific characteristics of careers can be found, for example, in career planning, career paths, career decision-making, and promotion criteria?
· At the behavioural level, which context-specific characteristics of careers can be found in individual career management, career expectations, career success and career mobility?
· How should we study careers across societies and cultures? What methodological approaches and designs could international careers research build on from other disciplines to help advance the field?
Comparative Career Research – Beyond a cross-cultural approach that focuses on cultural differences, Comparative Career Research (CCR) – similar to comparative HRM research – takes a broader view on international careers (Mayrhofer, Meyer & Steyrer 2007). It also includes other contextual factors such as institutional arrangements or national boundaries and has an explicit focus on comparison between various contextual settings. Among other things, this inevitably means a stronger focus on context and structure, counterbalancing the ‘actor-only’ tendency in careers research to date. Countries can be small or large, have greater or fewer regional differences, include one or many language groups, and are more or less economically developed. They may have different labour markets and education systems, different employment laws and trade unions, and different cultural expectations. Research has identified different career models that are pertinent for certain countries in terms of, for example, career entry and development, career paths, career success factors, and career transitions within and between organizations (e.g. Andresen, Al Ariss & Walther, 2013; Chudzikowski et al. 2009; Davoine & Ravasi, 2013; Lazarova, Dany & Mayrhofer, 2012). While there are an increasing number of studies looking at commonalities and differences in individual careers and organizational career management between countries, there is little systematic research available in this area.
Key research questions that could help to address this are, for example:
· How do different institutional factors influence careers systems?
· How do, in reaction, actual careers and career practices vary from country to country?
· What are the comparative similarities and differences between countries and between regions?
· Do we observe patterns of stasis, convergence and/or divergence between countries in terms of career systems and practices over time?
· Who, or what, are the key actors in the change (or rigidity) of career systems and practices, and through what kinds of processes does this take place?
· In addition to neo-institutional theories, what other theoretical schools (e.g. neoliberal and behavioural economics, national business systems) can help shed light on commonalities and differences between contextual settings as well as changes in their career systems over time?
Career Management in MNCs – Firms operating globally will need to decide whether their career system, and corresponding career-related practices and policies, should be standardized across the MNC in order to achieve worldwide consistency (global integration), or adjusted to account for the local environment (local adaptation). Prior research has mostly focused on the individual perspective, in particular on the international careers of expatriates in MNCs (e.g. Stahl & Cerdin, 2004), and to a lesser extent on their expatriate management practices (cf. Tungli & Peiperl, 2009). The same is largely true in terms of the outcomes of MNC career management practices insofar as most research focuses on the subjective and objective career outcomes of individuals, typically expatriates and inpatriates. With few exceptions (Dickmann & Doherty, 2008) there is little attention on the outcomes for MNCs and foreign subsidiaries.
Key research questions that could help to address this are, for example:
· How are the careers of those who comprise the MNC’s global workforce managed, i.e. beyond expatriates? How are MNC career practices designed and what factors (e.g. relating to the country-of-origin, industry or the MNC) influence the design?
· Which factors influence the decision for the standardization versus localization of career-related practices and policies? For example, how do MNCs respond to differences in the emphasis placed on career self-management versus organisational career management in different parts of the world?
· Given the cultural and institutional embeddedness of careers and career success, how easily can career-related practices be diffused within the MNC? Which factors determine their ‘diffusability’ and to what extent can transmutations be observed?
· What kinds of (international) career paths can be distinguished in MNCs and how are they influenced by internal labour markets and global leadership development activities?
· What are the intended versus actual outcomes of MNC career management practices from both MNC and individual perspectives? How do MNCs assess whether they have accomplished the goals of their career management policies and practices?
The overarching objective of this special issue is to advance international careers research in areas that have hereto received scant theoretical or empirical attention, more specifically around the three research avenues outlined above. Given the natural interlinkages between research on careers in the HRM, organisational behaviour and international management literatures, a further objective of the special issue is to encourage leading-edge contributions that attempt to cut across these different fields in ways that will enrich the theoretical and empirical work on international careers.
Submission deadline: 3rd May 2017 at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hrmj, indicating “New Avenues in International Careers Research” as the Special Issue. Enquiries related to the focus of papers or other queries related to the call for papers should be directed to Adam Smale ([log in to unmask]) or Emma Parry ([log in to unmask]).
References
Andresen, A. Al Ariss, A. & Walther, M. (2013). Self-initiated Expatriation: Individual, Organizational, and National Perspectives (Eds.). London: Routledge.
Chong, E. (2013). Managerial competencies and career advancement: A comparative study of managers in two countries. Journal of Business Research, 66(3), 345-353.
Chudzikowski, K., Demel, B., Mayrhofer, W., Briscoe, J.P., Unite, J., Bogicevic Milikic, B., Hall, D.T., Heras, M.L., Shen, Y., & Zikic, J. (2009). Career transitions and their causes: A countrycomparative perspective. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 82: 825– 849.
Dany, F., Mallon, M., & Arthur, M.B. (2003). The odyssey of career and the opportunity for international comparison. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14(5), 705-712.
Davoine, E., & Ravasi, C. (2013). The relative stability of national career patterns in European top management careers in the age of globalisation: A comparative study in France/Germany/Great Britain and Switzerland. European Management Journal, 31(2), 152- 163.
Dickmann, M., & Doherty, N. (2008). Exploring the career capital impact of international assignments within distinct organizational contexts. British Journal of Management, 19, 145-161.
King, Z. (2003). New or traditional careers? A study of UK graduates' preferences. Human Resource Management Journal, 13(1), 5-26.
Lazarova, M., Dany, F., & Mayrhofer, W. (2012). Careers: a country-comparative view. In C. Brewster & W. Mayrhofer (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management: 298-321. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Mayrhofer, W., Meyer, M., & Steyrer, J. (2007). Contextual Issues in the Study of Careers. In H. P. Gunz & M. A. Peiperl (Eds.), Handbook of Career Studies: 215-240. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Schaubroeck, J., & Lam, S.S. (2002). How similarity to peers and supervisor influences organizational advancement in different cultures. Academy of Management Journal, 45(6), 1120-1136.
Shaffer, M. A., Kraimer, M. L., Chen, Y., & Bolino, M. C. (2012). Choices, challenges, and career consequences of global work experiences: A review and future agenda. Journal of Management, 38(4), 1282-1327.
Stahl, G.K., & Cerdin, J.-L. (2004). Global careers in French and German multinational corporations. Journal of Management Development, 23(9), 885-902.
Tungli, Z., & Peiperl, M. (2009). Expatriate practices in German, Japanese, U.K., and U.S. multinational companies: A comparative survey of changes. Human Resource Management, 48(1), 153-171.
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Dr Elaine Farndale
Associate Professor of Human Resource Management
Co-Editor-in-Chief of Human Resource Management Journal: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1748-8583
Founder and Director, Center for International Human Resource Studies: http://ler.la.psu.edu/cihrs
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School of Labor and Employment Relations
The Pennsylvania State University
501c Keller Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA
email: [log in to unmask]; phone: +1 814-867-3320
webpage: http://ler.la.psu.edu/directory/euf3
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