The personal characteristics of the successful expatriate: A critical review of the literature and an empirical investigation

Abstract

Purpose

When critically reviewing the empirical research on the relationships between personal characteristics and successful foreign assignments it is revealed that the extant empirical research suffers from several limitations. The aim of this article is to shed additional light into the relationship between expatriate personal characteristics and job performance, circumventing the identified limitations of cross‐sectional design, use of self‐evaluations and inappropriate measures of success.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical study is based on longitudinal data. Trained psychologists carried out a psychological assessment of the expatriate prior to the assignment. Performance data were provided by both the expatriate and the expatriate's superior.

Findings

The obtained results support the importance of communicational ability for expatriate success, whereas stress tolerance and relational ability were not found to be significantly related to success.

Research limitations/implications

The study was conducted in only one multinational company and the country of origin of all studied expatriates was Finland. Another limitation of this study is the relatively limited number of personal characteristics studied and the use of only one superior performance evaluation per expatriate.

Practical implications

Based on the results it is recommended that companies systematically assess the personal characteristics of candidates before deciding on an expatriation, especially the communicational ability. Minimising the use of self‐evaluations in research is strongly advised.

Originality/value

This article contributes to the literature by providing a longitudinal study on the relationship between expatriate personal characteristics and performance.

Citation

Holopainen, J. and Björkman, I. (2005), "The personal characteristics of the successful expatriate: A critical review of the literature and an empirical investigation", Personnel Review, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480510578476