How global careers unfold in practice: Evidence from international project work

This article investigates how global careers unfold through an abductive, two-stage interview study of international project workers, informed by the literature on boundaryless careers and career capital. Our perspective is that of the individual rather than the organization. Facilitators and constraints to building and maintaining global careers are identified. Our data suggest that career capital, especially career networks, is critical. An important element is context: the career domain that includes a strong community of practice, evoking what we term project citizenship behavior. Consequently, emphasis is placed more on loyalty to self, project and profession than to the organization. We suggest that those pursuing global careers may pose distinct multinational management challenges in terms of organizational commitment, citizenship behaviour, global talent management and knowledge transfer.