Evolving and enduring challenges in global mobility

This article reviews the past 50 years of the science and practice of global mobility in organizations, highlighting the continuum of issues – from those that have endured throughout the decades to those that have changed as a function of economic, competitive, and demographic trends. At this latter end of the continuum, the field of global mobility has seen dramatic changes in the strategic deployment of expatriates, changes in assignment types, and demographic changes in the profile of expatriates. These are discussed in the first part of the article. In the second part of the article we review the issues which have been impervious to change over the years. We draw upon recent evidence from the fields of neuroscience and human development to examine two of the more enduring issues of global mobility: the change in individuals’ competencies as a function of living and working in another country and the personality characteristics and motivation related to expatriates’ success abroad. Taken together, these enduring and evolving issues in global mobility have implications for future research and practice.