Vesa SuutariUniversity of Vaasa · Department of Management
Vesa Suutari
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Citations since 2017
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January 2002 - present
Publications
Publications (114)
Purpose
This study explores whether expatriation type (assigned expatriates (AEs) versus self-initiated expatriates (SIEs)) is linked to job exhaustion via possible differences in required efforts for their jobs and the rewards they gain from them, and/or the balance between efforts and rewards. Adopting effort–reward imbalance (ERI) and job demand...
Global mobility of employees: creating an audit tool to support good practice
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action ‘Global Mobility of Employees’ (GLOMO) strives for a comprehensive investigation of global mobility into EU countries and within the EU and its impact on international careers. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, 15 early...
This systematic literature review explores studies addressing the objective career success and subjective career success of company-assigned and self-initiated expatriates after their long-term international assignments. Expatriate work is defined as high-density work that affects employee learning and career trajectories. We develop a holistic exp...
Expatriation has been a topic of much research recently. The important role expatriates play in the internationalisation of an organisation and the resultant effects of such a work experience on the expatriates themselves, have fuelled the interest in this domain. This edited volume serves to provide fresh and timely insights into four areas, cover...
𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
Much of the literature on expatriates has sought to identify what makes international experiences (IEs) successful in the short-term, and from the standpoint of organizations. In contrast, expatriates’ own preferences and perspectives, and how these may evolve in the span of their full careers, have been considerably overlooked.
What makes...
Purpose
The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the effects of expatriation on the development of career capital among the partners of expatriates.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on in-depth interviews with 30 Finnish partners of expatriates.
Findings
The results reflect the various learning experiences reported by partne...
Purpose
This paper aims: to undertake a systematic literature review on SIEs, examining twenty years of literature published between 2000 and 2020, focusing on the most-cited empirical work in the field; to analyse the topics covered by these studies; and to propose a research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a systematic literatur...
With approximately 50 million people across the globe considered expatriates (persons living and working abroad for a limited time), global mobility is an important issue for individuals, organisations, and national governments, and a major research stream in universities and business schools. Written by a team of internationally renowned scholars...
OPEN ACCESS: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/introduction-maike-andresen-chris-brewster-vesa-suutari/e/10.4324/9780429352690-1?context=ubx&refId=aab9ef64-b4d9-41da-adc9-4ba75c58edf2
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with ‘Cultural Distance and Self-In...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on satisfaction with an expatriate job and how such satisfaction is linked to leadership. Specifically, this research examines how two different kinds of distances – physical distance and functional distance – between an expatriate and his/her supervisor are related to satisfaction with the expatriate j...
This chapter reviews existing literature about the careers of self-initiated expatriates and analyzes the different studies carried out among university level educated Finnish business professionals. A series of studies carried out among members of the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates during the last 15 years was cross-analyzed. The...
Owing to the increasing number of studies on expatriates, their partners and families, we are starting to understand the main challenges related to work and personal life interaction involved with international mobility. Moreover, the first edited book on the work-life interface (WLI) in the context of international careers has recently been publis...
“Every boring or mundane activity you experience at home is, when you move to a foreign country, suddenly transformed into an exciting adventure” according to Reannon Muth, a travel writer. Indeed, it has long been known that some of the key drivers for global careers are adventure, excitement and learning (Hippler 2009; Doherty et al. 2011). While...
When counting the number of internationally mobile employees (IMEs) and analyzing the consequences of international mobility in order to improve the management of different kinds of IMEs, who counts as an expatriate (and its variants) is of crucial importance. Yet there is no consensus on a single definition of, for example, a “selfinitiated expatr...
In this chapter, we will first discuss the motives of both assigned expatriates (AEs) and self-initiated foreign expatriates (SIEs) for international work. Second, the nature of careers and jobs of AEs and SIEs are analysed. Third, we discuss the outcomes of expatriation for different types of expatriates. After that, we will explore the management...
‘This book is an invaluable resource for scholars in the field of global careers, for people experiencing or contemplating such a career, and for those who manage them. The team of experts assembled provides a wonderful breadth of perspectives and a rich coverage of the field.’
—Hugh P. Gunz, Professor, University of Toronto Mississauga
‘A rich co...
When counting the number of internationally mobile employees (IMEs) and analyzing the consequences of international mobility in order to improve the management of different kinds of IMEs, who counts as an expatriate (and its variants) is of crucial importance. Yet there is no consensus on a single definition of, for example, a “selfinitiated expatr...
Combining the realities of dual-career couples (DCCs) and the requirements of international careers can be difficult. In order to improve the understanding of the repatriation experiences of international DCCs, we conducted interviews with both partners in 14 DCCs. Contrary to expectations, the majority of the interviewed couples reported very succ...
This article is one of the first to examine the long-term effect of expatriation on careers, comparing the impact of international work experience on the career success of assigned and self-initiated expatriates. Our sample consists of employees who were working abroad in 2004, and we examine their subjective and objective career success eight year...
Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals’ career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; ‘knowing how’, ‘knowing whom’, ‘knowing why’ and find that compa...
The combination of two trends common in working life—international work and a dual career situation—is challenging for both genders. In order to cope with the situation, international dual career couples have to be able to coordinate their careers. The purpose of this article is to identify how dual career expatriates view their career coordination...
We examine how the development of three types of career capital (knowing how, knowing whom, and knowing why) during an international assignment affects the perceived marketability of organizational expatriates. Using the perceived marketability perspective and long-term follow-up data, we show that knowing how is seen as the most transferable type...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and moderating effect of gender and parental status on the relationship between international business travel days and work-to-family conflict (WFC) among international business travellers (IBTs) on the basis of the conservation of resources theory.
Design/methodology/approach
– The stud...
In this chapter, we advocate for considering expatriate compensation packages from a more encompassing total reward perspective. We feel this enriches both our analysis and related practices concerning the rewards of international assignees. Total reward “embraces everything that employees value in the employment relationship” (O’Neal, 1998). It in...
Work-life balance (WLB) concerns are often critical to international assignments. Experienced international managers mention them as one of the key challenges in their career (Suutari, 2003), and the majority of international assignees (IAs) report work as regularly interfering with their private life (Grant-Vallone & Ensher, 2001). Indeed, work is...
The globalization of business has led to an increasing number of people working in the international business environment and moving across borders for their work. International work now takes several different forms, from long-term assignments lasting several years to short-term assignments of some months or to frequent international travelling (C...
This book focuses on the interface of work and personal life of international professionals. The globalization of business has led to an increasing number of people who work in international roles either through working abroad on different kinds of assignments or through international travelling. This book provides novel knowledge on the topic from...
This paper examines how the development of three types of career capital (knowing how, whom and why) during an international assignment affects the marketability (internal and external and home-country and international) of organisational expatriates. Using long-term follow-up data we show that knowing how is the most transferable type of career ca...
It has been argued (see, e.g., Haslberger and Brewster 2008; Lazarova,Westman, and Sheffer 2010; Mäkelä, Känsälä, and Suutari 2011; Mäkelä and Suutari 2011) that expatriates have difficulties balancing work with the rest of their lives. Our understanding of the issues and factors contributing to the work/ non-work balance is limited. To increase ou...
The present study examines the direct and moderating effects of an international career orientation in the relationship between frequency and duration of international business traveling and work-to-life conflict and enrichment. In addition, the effort-reward imbalance that potentially features in the international business traveler's job was exami...
There is increasing international demand for professionals with the will
and capacities to take on positions overseas, wherever the need might be. However,
it remains a huge strategic challenge for global organizations to successfully
identify individuals who have the abilities required to achieve the objectives of
an international assignment and h...
This editorial article introduces this special issue of the International Journal of Human Resource Management devoted to the outcomes of expatriate assignments. We set the topic in context. We start by summarizing the traditional view on expatriate outcomes. We then argue that recent developments in the field suggest the need to build a more sophi...
It has been argued (see, e.g., Haslberger and Brewster 2008; Lazarova, Westman, and Sheffer 2010; Mäkelä, Känsälä, and Suutari 2011; Mäkelä and Suutari 2011) that expatriates have difficulties balancing work with the rest of their lives. Our understanding of the issues and factors contributing to the work/non-work balance is limited. To increase ou...
Purpose
This paper extends the increasing debates about the role of international experience through mechanisms other than standard expatriation packages, in particular through the use of short-term assignments. It explores the different forms of short-term assignments (project work, commuter assignments, virtual international working and developme...
As it is evidenced by this book, and other recent texts in international human resource management, the initial recognition (Suutari and Brewster, 2000) of self-initiated expatriation among the international workforce has been followed by a burst of research into the topic (Dorsch, Suutari, and Brewster, 2012). Already, it is clear that, while some...
International work affects not only the working life of the self-initiated expatriate (SIE) but also their whole life situation. Moreover, if SIEs have a family, moving and living abroad is at least as challenging for their spouses and children as it is for them. However, there is limited research on the work-life interface (WLI) of SIEs. To increa...
Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) represent an increasingly important part of the global workforce, and typically come with considerable knowledge and skills and high motivation to work internationally. This, together with the growing corporate need for managers who are able to deal with global integration and coordination work (Harvey et al., 1999...
Purpose
– The purpose of this editorial is to present an overview of the papers in this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper draws on papers in this special issue.
Findings
– There is a multi‐disciplinarily approach of the papers in this issue in connecting fields of management, sociology, migration, and psychology, among others...
Purpose
– The careers of skilled migrant workers is an under‐theorised field of research. This paper proposes a theoretical and methodological expansion of studies of careers of skilled migrants.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper offers a critical review of the literature on careers of skilled migrants from a multilevel approach including in...
Globalization and the development of multinational organizations have led to an increase in the number of people spending part of their lives living and working in foreign countries. While the contemporary literature has focused on organizational expatriates sent overseas by their employers, self-initiated expatriation is becoming an important area...
Coping has been defined as constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that exceed the resources of the person. In this book, the authors present new research on the psychology of coping. Topics discussed include coping with climate change; coping with bereavement and other existential st...
Purpose –– The aim of the present study was to shed light on the role of Western expatriates in knowledge transfer processes in foreign subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe and the impediments they face in these roles in the context of socio-economic transformation.
Methodology/approach –– The findings are based on qualitative data collected...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze female expatriates' work-life conflicts and enrichments which take place during the international assignment.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 20 interviews were carried out with female expatriates. The interview data were content analyzed.
Findings – The findings indicate that females hav...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify how dual career expatriates view their spouses' roles during international assignments.
Design/methodology/approach – In total, 39 interviews were carried out with expatriates who had a working spouse. The interview data were content analysed using replication logic.
Findings – The authors' findi...
In order to increase our understanding of the work-family conflicts experienced by global careerists and their families and the related coping strategies they adopt to address them, managers with long-term global careers were interviewed. The results indicate that the challenging nature of their jobs means global careerists face not only time-based...
See full text at: http://www.uva.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978-952-476-374-5.pdf
The present study aims at increasing our understanding of (1) the elements that global careerists value most in their employment relationship, (2) the factors affecting their decisions to change employers or reject external job offers, and (3) the factors which are important to global careerists when considering their future career. By adopting a s...
In this introduction to our special issue, we will first seek to discuss the extent to which recent expatriation research and literature is still subject to earlier criticisms. Second, we will discuss the future research needs concerning the theme of this special issue, international careers, briefly reviewing the dominating research theme within t...
Global careers, typically defined as involving multiple international relocations including various positions and assignments in several countries, have recently received increasing research attention. This interest is driven by a growing corporate need for managers who are able to deal with global integration and co-ordination in large multination...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover the preferences for management development methods used in the development of senior managers, and to discover the perceived effectiveness, as well as strengths and weaknesses, of different methods.
Design/methodology/approach – The study can be classified as a quantitative internet-survey study,...
New career realities appear to be reshaping the necessary tools, skills and attitudes individuals must possess in order to establish a successful career in the international business arena. In particular, the boundaryless career perspective provides an interesting point of departure from which to analyze the kinds of competences future global caree...
This article explores the career capital of expatriates, differentiating between self-initiated expatriates (SEs) and company assigned expatriates (AEs). Previous research has considered issues such as individual background variables, employer and task variables, motives, compensation, and repatriation. The present study adds new perspectives relat...
This study investigated the changes taking place in HRM practices found in European-owned units in China between 1996 and 2006 in conjunction with the transformation of the context in which they are operating. Our study presents clear evidence for the convergence of HRM found in local Chinese firms with those of European MNC units in China. The res...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to address the research question of “How does a global career involving multiple international relocations influence the career capital of an individual manager?”, and to examine the typical career‐capital‐related characteristics, drivers and outcomes associated with global careers. The importance of understan...
This paper argues that three new developments in the literature on expatriation have occurred in recent years. There has been increasing attention paid to groups of employees who do not fit the traditional format of being sent to foreign countries by multinational corporations for a two to five year period; there have been attempts to encompass the...
The following sections begin by discussing the increasing strategic significance of knowledge and its effective transfer within a multinational network. The theoretical foundations of the knowledge stickiness framework to be applied in this study are then introduced as well as the theoretical developments which have come to conceptualise expatriate...
Purpose
– This paper introduces this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper examines some of the key themes in global human resource management.
Findings
– By reviewing, briefly, the existing literature in these areas, the paper outlines a limited but crucial research agenda and sets the papers in this special issue in context.
O...
International knowledge transfer processes and related internal stickiness factors have recently been targets of increasing research interest. However, the role of expatriate managers in these international knowledge transfers is not well understood. The objectives of the present study were (1) to analyze what kind of knowledge is transferred withi...
The importance of understanding the careers of global leaders, who typically have careers including various international positions and assignments, has increased due to the globalization of business. One relevant approach to such careers is the internal career approach. Here the career anchor is seen as a person's self-concept, consisting of self-...
In the light of this background, the research objective of this pilot study was to analyse what kind of approach (standardization versus localization) the Finnish companies operating in Estonia apply to their IHRM and how consistent they are in their approach across HRM-functions. Before the presentation of the empirical research findings, some the...
One of the newer areas of research in the field of international human resource management concerns the repatriation of international assignees at the end of their time abroad. This paper is one of the first examples of a longitudinal cohort analysis of repatriates. Tracking the same group of well-qualified Finnish expatriates from their time abroa...
The need for developing a cadre of global managers who are capable of working in international key positions wherever the needs of companies require it, has been widely stressed. Typically, the literature on international careers still deals with international assignments as “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences and thus as a continuum from selecting th...
International assignments are becoming more and more typical parts of a managerial career. As an outcome, cross-cultural leadership competencies are required within international companies. Still, real cross-cultural leadership interaction between expatriate managers and their local subordinates has not been much studied. In the light of this, the...
Aims to increase our understanding of the antecedents of repatriation adjustment. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey among Finnish repatriates in co-operation with the Finnish union of qualified economics graduates. In the study four different facets of adjustment appeared instead of the three suggested in the literature (i.e. g...
The globalization of business has challenged companies to rethink their strategies, structures, and necessary competencies of managers. The existing studies indicate that typically companies do not have enough leaders within global competencies and that competition for such resources will be even more intensive in the future. The basic prerequisite...
The present study aims at increasing the understanding of existing expatriate performance management practices, their efficiency and related contextual factors. The descriptive findings mainly support the picture arising from the few earlier studies identified, but also bring out several new ideas such as the use of team goals. Second, key performa...
Due to the globalisation of business, international assignments are becoming more typical career steps in managerial careers than before. On the other hand, expatriation has been found to include several problems including high costs, adjustment challenges, inefficiency, and premature returns. As an outcome, the need for adequate preparation and tr...
Expatriate management practices, such as selection, preparation, liaison with home country representatives, performance evaluation, repatriation, and career planning, are often found to fall short of the wishes of the expatriates themselves. Reports the results of a recent survey among Finnish expatriates operating around the world, which examined...
Due to the current transformation of Central Eastern European (CEE) economies, not very much is known about managerial behaviour during that era. With a view of increasing such an understanding, this paper reports some observations on characteristics of the leadership styles of managers in CEE as experienced by Finnish expatriates. The emerging cha...
Expatriate compensation has been commonly said to be a very complex and challenging issue both for expatriates and for companies. As a result, dissatisfaction with compensation is reported to be very high among expatriates. In the light of this, the present study provides new empirical evidence of recent compensation practices among Finnish expatri...
This introductory article briefly reviews the current state of research into expatriation, focusing on the critical issues of strategy, selection and predeparture, compensation, performance management, repatriation, and career management. The burgeoning research in the field is set into context and a plea made for a more varied and imaginative rese...
Studies of international transferees have generally assumed that they are sent to a foreign country by their employer. In practice, many of these transferees make their own arrangements to get work abroad and this paper presents new information on this largely unstudied group, drawn from graduate engineers from Finland. It identifies similarities w...
The relationship between foreign assignment and career development has been stated to be unclear, and further research has been called for with regard to career challenges and career management programmes of expatriates. Furthermore, today an extensive proportion of marriages are dual-career partnerships with both partners employed, and thus a need...
After the collapse of Communism, the business environment and organizations in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) have been going through an extensive transformation, but the influence of the previous system can still be seen within many organizations. Due to increasing West European investments in Central and Eastern Europe, more companies and expatriat...
Expatriate compensation has been found to be a challenging issue to deal with and thus the level of satisfaction among expatriates has been found to be low. On the other hand, empirical research on expatriate compensation packages and their determinants has been scarce and provides fairly little help for compensation-related decision-making. In the...
Projects
Projects (5)
Finding out how expatriates make use of and build their social capital, and its effects on career success (subjective and objective), performance, well-being... as well as organizational-level outcomes.
- How does social capital affect the long-term career success of expatriates (AEs, SIEs), repatriates, global careerists...?
- Are foreign networks and new tacit skills valuable upon return to the home country? Are home contacts "lost", and does that hinder career advancement?
- Who helps (strength of ties, position)? How?
- How can organizations leverage the resources embedded in social networks, help maintain them, and improve their support to repatriates upon return?
- Contacts are a reliable source of information across countries, parent and subsidiary companies... What are the implications for organizational learning and knowledge management?
Creating career success: Long-term career impacts of different types of international work experiences (Host: University of Vaasa)
ESR 4 will analyse the longer-term career impacts of international work experiences among different types of international professionals, the development during international work experiences using career capital theory as well as their impacts on future career choices.
https://www.glomo.eu/projects/