Facing the rankings from the past: a tournament perspective on repatriate career mobility

Abstract

This article offers a theoretical contribution to the current debate on managing repatriation. Problems with repatriation, such as under-utilization of international experience, poor integration to the home unit and damaged career prospects are well known by now. Less emphasis has been devoted lo understanding the organizational processes leading to such controversial outcomes. Most of the earlier research has ignored the role of organizational career structures and processes in shaping the unfolding of cross-cultural transitions. This paper tills the gap by interpreting repatriate career outcomes in the light of the tournament dynamics of expatriate's home organization. The article draws attention to the pre-expatriation rankings constraining repatriate career opportunities as well as to the process of expatriation/repatriation transitions. Special focus is set on the interaction between local tournament logic and the distinct attributes of expatriate transfer in the shaping of expatriate career path. The understanding of repatriate career problems thus gained suggests for international human resource management a broader organizational and processual view of the causes of repatriate problems. Reflection on and revision of pre-expatriation assessment criteria of managerial potential are particularly needed to enable a more enduring influence of international experience on managerial culture. As far as individual employers are concerned, an awareness of the tournament logic's influence on optimal career strategies in international firms is called for so as to motivate each person better in his or her ongoing work efforts.

Keywords:

• Repatriation
• career mobility
• international human resource management
• career strategies