Eighteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Aiming to expand upon existing knowledge concerning company policies, job-related resource preservation processes and individual willingness to engage with a specific type of international work regime (business expatriations), the present study considers interaction effects, as proposed by the conservation of resources (COR) theory, as lens to understand if company policies are enacted as qualifying resource passageway of expatriate willingness levels, in developing business contexts. A 3-year study, encompassing 24 expatriate cases observed in 5 multinational firms born or located in Portugal. Two techniques of empirical data collection were used: statistical sources and documental analysis, and in-depth interviews. A total of 37 interviews were conducted, both in-person and remotely, of which 13 were with company managers and representatives, and 24 with expatriates (as defined and referred like this by the companies under study). Overall, three profiles of expatriate willingness were considered to mirror different types of employee positioning towards working abroad: conformist expatriates, protean expatriates and disrupted expatriates. For these proposed groupings, different resource process dynamics were observed, ranging from upward resource fluctuation to downward pressure, respectively. Practical implications are provided to further understand individual agency-level effects of dynamic, non-functionalist company expatriate policies, in developing companies and economies.