Chris Brewster

Multinational enterprises need high‐status expatriates to enhance their workforce and improve coordination and control. Such employees face personal and socio‐political challenges that require the creation and sustenance of multipartite mutual trust between organisations and their expatriates, as well as host country nationals. Nevertheless, there have been few studies on how trust related to such individuals is formed, developed, maintained or breached and no comprehensive analysis. Our objective is to synthesise organisational and interpersonal trust with expatriation across the full life cycle and to develop a conceptual framework for future research and practice. We conducted a Boolean search using ProQuest Central and applied exclusion criteria to examine 46 relevant empirical articles. This review reveals that most research only considers part of the expatriation life cycle, being rather limited to the time spent in the host country. We examine expatriation through a trust lens and synthesise two complementary literature streams to offer a holistic conceptual framework spanning predeparture, on‐assignment and repatriation stages.

Purpose: Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) are relevant resources for multinational enterprises, but the topic of gender is often overlooked. This study aims to examine how psychological contract (PC) types differ between women and men SIEs and how the intersection of gender and occupational status shapes these contracts and associated intentions to stay. Specifically, we investigate how relational and transactional psychological contracts (PCs) mediate the relationship between supervisor–subordinate relationship quality and intention to remain with the same employer and in the host region, with a particular analytical focus on women SIEs. Design/methodology/approach: We use survey data from 234 women SIEs (and a comparator group of 386 men). The cross-sectional data were collected in the United Arab Emirates and analysed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine gender- and status-based differences. Findings: Our findings demonstrated positive direct effects between the relationship with the supervisor and holding both relational and transactional PCs. Relational PCs were positively related to intention to stay with the employer, but not in the host region, while transactional PCs were negatively related to both outcome variables. Furthermore, we found that medium-status women SIEs tend to hold PCs with fewer relational features compared with their higher qualified counterparts. Originality/value: This study advances PC research by incorporating gender, occupational status and mobility context into a single analytical framework. For practice, the findings highlight the importance of high-quality supervisory relationships and career development opportunities in supporting the retention of women SIEs at both organisational and regional levels.

Scholarly interest in refugee employment often centers on the barriers faced by this group of jobseekers. This study shifts focus to employers, exploring how their practices address recruitment challenges. Our qualitative investigation of 39 Australia-based employers identifies two sets of barriers—proximal and distal—and the corresponding practices employers adopt to overcome them. We find that these barriers differ in the assumed scale, locus of influence, and the nature of impact. Through a practice theory lens, we demonstrate how employers’ responses to these barriers have the capacity to reproduce or alter the socio-structural conditions in which refugee employment takes place. While most employers focus on adaptive practices targeting proximal barriers, transformative practices aimed at tackling the distal barriers play a key role in rectifying structural disparities in the recruitment of disadvantaged groups. Our study advances refugee employment literature by demonstrating how employers’ assumptions around the barriers can deter employer engagement and limit impact. We highlight the managerial implications by demonstrating how employers can drive meaningful change in areas traditionally considered the domain of other actors, effectively addressing challenges in the employment landscape.