Sustainable Global Career of Self-Initiated Expatriates

Abstract

The concept of sustainable careers has become crucial for individuals, organizations, and societies in today's rapidly evolving global economy. A sustainable career is characterized by completeness, wholeness, and consistency between one's values, actions, and interconnectedness. These hold particular significance for Self-Initiated Expatriates (SIEs) due to the unique challenges they face. Unlike other expatriate groups, SIEs embark on international experiences not through organizational transfers, but through their own initiative. Thus, this study explores the sustainable global careers of SIEs through a qualitative approach, employing interviews with a diverse sample of eight SIEs across various demographic characteristics. These individuals are employed in different sectors across five countries. Grounded in the sustainable career model, the study examines dimensions of sustainable career including person, context and time together with indicators of sustainable career namely health, happiness and productivity. It seeks to answer two research questions: what kind of influence these indicators have on SIEs' perceptions of their career sustainability, and the impact of career sustainability dimensions on SIEs' career longevity. The study employs both retrospective and prospective approaches, analysing past experiences and current actions to inform future career sustainability for SIEs. It is discovered that being a SIE offers opportunities to career sustainability by providing chances for renewal and revitalization through flexible and adaptable approaches. Integration of diverse experiences from different contexts in a SIE´s career life imparts a sense of completeness and meaning, contributing to sustainable career paths. Hence, with the absence of prior studies, this study investigates and offers fresh insights by identifying potential opportunities and obstacles in the career experiences of SIEs. Thus, it is aimed to facilitate successful expatriation, ultimately improving the prospects for establishing sustainable global careers. Despite the lack of longitudinal data, it is expected that this endeavour will offer valuable insights for researchers to understand the current landscape of SIEs and pave the way for future exploration.