Responsible leadership during international assignments: a novel approach toward expatriation success

Abstract

Adopting a responsible leadership (RL) lens and drawing on intergroup behavior and social identity theory, we analyze a sample of 111 expatriates using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our findings indicate that RL enacted by host-country supervisors is positively associated with international assignees’ cross-cultural adjustment and affective well-being at work, in turn leading to better expatriate performance. RL may thus facilitate adjustment and well-being in the host country. We emphasize the support potential when expatriates’ supervisors are guided by a strong values foundation and exhibit stakeholder engagement. In this way, we aim to provide a perspective for studying leadership dynamics in the expatriation context that goes beyond leader-follower dyads within organizations. We believe that expatriation research can benefit from adopting a broader stakeholder view on leadership that considers business-society interrelations and outline some direction that might take.

Keywords:

• Responsible leadership
• affective well-being at work
• cross-cultural adjustment
• expatriate performance
• international assignments

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgment

This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project UIDB/04928/2020.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

UIDB/04928/2020 FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.