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Expatriates’experiences concerning coaching as a part of their career capital development
Raija Salomaa & Liisa Mäkelä
Corresponding author:
Tel: +358 44 350 5557
University of Vaasa, Department of Management
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore expatriates’ experiences concerning coaching as a part of their career capital (capabilities of knowing-how, knowing-why, knowing-whom)development.
Design/methodology/approach: A narrative analysis was utilized to study and interpret the stories of coached expatriates. The data of this study consists of three semi-structured interviews with coached expatriates.
Findings: The findings of our study show that the coaching processes were perceived supporting the development of all the three career capital capabilities of expatriates. Motivation to engage in coaching and support gained from coaching was perceived differently depending how much international experience an expatriate had. Most of the gained career capital capabilities were perceived being transferable to new working environments and coaching helped expatriates also to develop in the areas of career capital, which were not even expected in advance.
Practical implications:As a practical implication drawn from our study organizations employing expatriates should consider coaching as one of the HRD tools to support their international assignees. Second,the career capital model is suggested to be adopted in institutions training coaches and among coaches as one of the tools when coaching executives in international transition situations.
Originality/value: This is the first empirical study focusing on coaching as a development intervention for career capital development. Thisstudy expands our understanding of the experiences of expatriates from the career capital perspective and contributes by analyzing the perceptions of coaching as a development intervention.
Key words: Expatriates, career-capital, coaching, qualitative approach
1 Introduction
In the globalized economy leaders who are able to cope with the different kinds of tasks and challenges in international business environments are valued asset for their organizations. Expatriates, employees who move from their home country abroad due to their work, are one important group of employees, especially for multinational companies (MNCs). The need for internationally competent managers is escalating (Selmer, 1999; Caliguiri and Tarique, 2012) and it has been argued that the HRM function must be able to create a set of development (HRD) activities, including career related support practices in order to be able to develop global leaders (Suutari, 2003).
During international assignments expatriates develop their understanding of worldwide operations and gain several competencies needed in the international working environments. The international assignment can be seen as a mutually beneficial episode, which fulfills both the organizational need to gain competitive advantage by generating social and intellectual capital for their employeesand it fulfills also the need for individual development by buildingexpatriate’s career capital (Larsen, 2004;Haslberger and Brewster, 2009),a concept covering abroad set of competencies employees need in order to be successful in their employment paths (Suutari, Brewster and Tornikoski, 2013).In particular, career capital (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994; Inkson and Arthur, 2001) consist of three elements; knowing-how (e.g. technical skills), knowing-whom (e.g. social networks) and knowing-why (e.g. motivation).
Furthermore, international assignments have been found to be very developmental for the expatriate but at the same time also very challenging (Carpenter, Sanders, and Gregersen, 2000; Caligiuri and Di Santo, 2001; Suutari and Mäkelä, 2007). For example, expatriates are reported often to operate on more challenging and broader tasks abroad than in their home country (Suutari and Brewster, 2000), which is likely to contribute on their career capital. Generally, little research exists on the development of career capital during an international assignment, but earlier studies have shownthat career capitaldevelops during an expatriation (Jokinen, 2010). Moreover, the development of career capital is also found to be such kind of a process, which can be facilitated with external support, for instance, with coaching or mentoring (Dickmann and Harris, 2005;Mezias and Scandura, 2005; Singh, Ragins and Tharenou, 2009), andcoaching has been recommended for expatriates and international managers as a support and development intervention (Selmer, 1999; Mendenhall and Stahl, 2000; Mendenhall, 2006).
Today, the annual revenue from coaching is estimated to be 2 billion US dollars (ICF Global Coaching Study, 2012). It has been argued that the rapid change in the global business environment accelerates the use of coaching (Tompson et al., 2008),but coaching research in the international context lags behind the practice (Abbott et al., 2013). Expatriate coaching is seen here as a sub-form of executive coaching, and we acknowledge that there is no unique definition for executive coaching (Feldman and Lankau, 2005).Expatriate coaching is defined here as ‘a human development process of the assignee that involves structured, focused interaction and the use of appropriate strategies, tools and techniques in an international context. It is aimed to promote desirable and sustainable change for the benefit of the assignee and potentially for other stakeholders’ (modified from Bachkirova et al. 2010,1).Coaching is understood here as a one-to-one, action-oriented and goal-driven process facilitated by an external, professional coach.
International career research has already been enriched by mentoring research and vice versa, and executive coaching has been recommended as a promising avenue for future research(Sullivan and Baruch, 2009). There are only a few empirical studies focusing on expatriate coaching (Abbott, 2006; Herbolzheimer, 2009; McGill, 2010; Salomaa, 2015), and so far any empirical studies focusing on coaching as part of expatriates’ career capital development was not found. However, existing evidence supports the idea that coaching is an efficient intervention in the expatriate context. Given, that coaching is distinguished from other career development activities like career counseling and mentoring (Feldman and Moore, 2001; Chung, Coleman and Gfroerer, 2003), and that coaching has been addressed only sparsely in the career development literature in general (Ciutiene, Neverauskas and Meilene, 2010), there is a clear gap in expatriate coaching research.
In the light of above, the aim of this study is to explore expatriates’ experiences concerning coaching as a part of their career capital development.Next, we briefly introduce the theoretical building blocks of this paper and present a review of the relevant literature.
2 Literature review
In this section we discuss the central concepts of this paper, career capital and executive coaching in an international context, and review the existing literature.
2.1 International careers and career capital
The nature of careers in the age of globalization is very different from that only a few years ago (Thomas et al., 2005). Contemporarycareer patterns are suggested to be flexible, non-linear and self-driven. Also current organizations are less ridged, but not totally fluid in their career management systems as individuals tend to take more control of their own career – the careers have shifted toward boundaryless and protean careers (Baruch, 2006). These two overlapping career theories are suggested to be relevant in the international context, and the concept of protean careers seems to be particularly appropriate in the context of boundaryless global careers. Both approaches stress the role of an individual’s awareness. Protean refers to the subjective perspective of an individual careerist facing external career realities of a boundaryless career (Suutari and Mäkelä, 2007).De Fillippi and Arthur first introduced the ‘intelligent career’ theory in 1994 (Parker, Khapova and Arthur, 2009). It was later revised and re-labeled to boundaryless career. DeFillippi and Arthur (1996) defined boundaryless career as ‘sequences of job opportunities that go beyond the boundaries of single employment settings’.This theory suggests that people invest in their careers through three ways of knowing.Career actors are viewed as individuals who consciously gain portable capabilities, actively construct social networks and enhance their careers. They identify their own drives and motivations, and apply these in their work context (Inkson and Arthur, 2001; Suutari et al., 2013).
The concept of career capital consists of thefollowing sub-dimensions; first, ‘knowing-how’ is an integrative term that combines explicit knowledge, implicit experiences, soft skills and technical expertise into a specific form of career capital. Second, ‘knowing-why’ career capital dimension consists of motivation, confidence, and self-assurance to pursue a certain career path. Third, ‘knowing-whom’ involves person’s work relationships and includes occupational and internal company connections that can support individual’s career. It also incorporates broader contacts with family, friends, fellow-alumni, and professional and social acquaintances(DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994; Inkson and Arthur, 2001).
The model of career capital offers a broad framework to study developmental perspective of an employee, and it has been found to be relevant also in the international career context and among expatriates. (Inkson and Arthur, 2001; Cappellen and Janssens, 2005; Suutari and Mäkelä, 2007). The existing research indicates that international assignments develop all the three dimensions of career capital. Knowing-how capital competencies have been found to develop during expatriation through the development ofcross-cultural and general management skills, listening, negotiation, teamwork and delegation skills and capacity to learn(Antal, 2000; Dickmann and Doherty, 2008). Also knowing-why capital develops during expatriation.International assignments improve expatriates’ sense of their potential, their self-awareness and increase their self-confidence. Expatriation is an experience that challenges one’s beliefs, and influences individual’s identity and future career aspirations. Further, it impacts also their values and interests (Kohonen, 2004; Dickmann and Harris, 2005; Suutari and Mäkelä, 2007; Dickmann and Doherty, 2008; Jokinen et al., 2008).Further, knowing-whom career capital is found to be strengthened becauseassignees expand their professional networks while on an assignment (Antal, 2000; Mäkelä, 2007). Moreover, expatriates are able to utilize their previous international experiences in their future international assignments, and there is evidence thatthe competencies acquired are transferable to a new context,at least to some extent (Jokinen, 2010).
The career capital development can be assisted with development interventions, for instance, with coaching or mentoring (Dickmann and Harris, 2005;Mezias and Scandura, 2005; Singh, Ragins and Tharenou, 2009). So far research has indicated that mentoring has a positive effect on the expatriate’s organizational knowledge, organizational knowledge-sharing, and job performance (e.g. Feldman and Bolino, 1999; Meziah and Scandura, 2005; Carraher, Sullivan and Crociotto, 2008;Singh, Ragins and Tharenou, 2009). Coaching has been recommended suitable development intervention for expatriates (Selmer, 1999; Mendenhall and Stahl, 2000; Mendenhall, 2006). However, empirical research focusing on expatriate coaching is very limited and next, current literature focusing on international and expatriate coaching is reviewed.
2.2 International and Expatriate Coaching
International perspective on executive coaching has gained growing attention among coaching practitioners and scholars (Abbott et al. 2013) and it has been argued that executive coaching is now entering the period of globalization (Barosa-Perreira, 2014).Coaching is commonly seen as a collaborative and non-directive relationship between the coach and the coachee for the purpose of attaining professional or personal development outcomes. It is a cross-disciplinary approach that has its roots in psychology, management, learning theory, theories of human and organizational development, philosophy, and sports (Brock, 2008; Bachkirova et al., 2010). As the coaching research has grown beyond its infancy, there is more and more evidence that coaching has positive effects on performance and skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes, and goal directed self-regulation (Theeboom et al., 2014). However, many coaching scholars posit that the profession still lacks the evidence-base (Feldman and Lankau, 2005; Peterson, 2011), and this is especially true for the evolving field of international coaching research.
Over the past decade coaching scholars have started to study coaching from an international perspective. Terms such as international, cross-cultural and global coaching are used interchangeable, and the coaching approaches have been influenced by cross-cultural and international management theories.Currently, a holistic approach to integrating culture into mainstream coaching is emerging (Abbott, 2007; 2010; Abbott et al., 2013). However, it is worth noticing that almost every coaching assignment has some cultural ingredients, which do not have to be international in nature. So far, most of the literature concerning international coaching is conceptual and cover topics such as multinational teams, gender and diversity issues, culture and different coaching frameworks and approaches suitable for international contexts(e.g.Rosinski, 2003 and 2010;Handin and Steinwedel, 2006;Peterson, 2007; Passmore, 2009; Moral and Abbott, 2009; Coultas et al., 2011; Plaister-Ten, 2013).Typically, the understanding of cultural dimensions and values are argued to be requirements for coaches working internationally and, for example, there is evidence from the Asian context that coaching needs to be adapted to local cultural values (Nangalia and Nangalia, 2010).Since we focus here on expatriate coaching as a vehicle to develop the career capital of assignees, we next review the existing expatriate coachingliterature in more detail.
Earlier literature has suggested that coaching is likely to be efficient, because, like the expatriate experience itself, coaching is a connected process that impacts interactively across the individual’s affective, behavioral and cognitive domains (Abbott et al., 2006). Some studies have presented theoretical models (Abbott and Stening, 2009)how coaching may support expatriate in different phases of the assignment cycle or how expatriate coaching may support couples’adjustment(Miser and Miser, 2009). Specific needs for coaching of female expatriates (Burrus, 2009a) and global nomads (Burrus, 2009b), individuals who have lived in different countries since their childhood and have global careers, have also been discussed. Further, Abbott (2011) has suggested that executive coaching of expatriates develops the global mindset, a construct consisting of psychological, social and intercultural capital (Javidan et al., 2010), and cultural intelligence, the capability for consciousness and awareness during intercultural situations (Ng and van Dyne, 2009).
The empirical studies on expatriate coaching have shown that executive coaching is an intervention which facilitates expatriate acculturation and helpthem to deal with intercultural differences,pre-departure uncertainty, and support the repatriation process (Abbott, 2006;Herboltzheimer, 2009).Coaching has also reported increasing expatriates’ emotional intelligence capabilities of self-awareness, emotional control, communication strategies, self-reflection and empathy(McGill, 2010). Moreover, coaching has found to increase expatriates’ effectiveness and performance (Abbott, 2006; Herboltzheimer, 2009;McGill, 2010), andenhancetheir leadership development (McGill, 2010).Executive coaching is reported boosting the levels of happiness,personal satisfaction and confidence of expatriates and decreasetheir stress(McGill, 2010).
Furthermore, it has been found that coaching isperceived beneficial because it provides a professional dialogue partner(Herbolzheimer, 2009)and istailored to their individual needs (McGill, 2010; Salomaa, in press). International experience and the behavior of the coach are found being essential success factors. Also coaching language impacts expatriate coaching in several ways (Salomaa, in press). Organizational support and a clear contract with objectives and evaluation of coachingappear to be important in regard to coaching success (Salomaa, in press). However, HR representatives are found to be scarcely familiar with the existence and practice of expatriate coaching (Herbolzheimer, 2009).
In sum, both international coaching and the development of career capital during an international assignment are developing areas of research. Existing theoretical and empirical studies on expatriate coaching show that it is likely that coaching could be beneficial for career capital development. However, to best of our knowledge research focusing on expatriates’ experiences of coaching as a support intervention for career capital is lacking and thus this study aims to fill this gap in current research.
After reviewing the relevant earlier literature on career capital of expatriates, coaching and expatriate coaching, we will next describe the empirical data and methodological approach adopted.
3 Method
A qualitative, narrative analysis was chosen to explore three rich narratives of coached expatriates. A narrative approach was adopted for this study, because it is well suited for studies of change processes, such as international career transitions.It is also argued that stories are highly relevant for the study of careers (Cohran, 1990; Cohen and Mallon, 2001; Savickas, 2001; Bujold, 2004). A narrative can be a description of a specific event or process (Flick, 2002), such as anexpatriation or coaching process. Furthermore, narrative approach may reveal issues that would not be exposed by using other methods.
A narrative approach has been suggested suitable for management and organizational research (Czarniawska, 1997; Boje, 2001), and it has been adopted in international business research (Gertsen and Söderberg, 2011). Narrative approach has been already applied toexpatriate research, providing in-depth understanding concerning expatriate managers’ heroic tales(Osland, 2000),expatriates’ cultural encounters and cultural learning processes(Gertsen and Söderberg, 2010) and expatriates’ identity and career aspirations(Kohonen, 2007).
As narrative research offers no automatic analyzing steps, we recognize that there is a considerable diversity in the definition of personal narrative and a large methodological variation within the narrative theory (Riessman, 2000). Therefore we next define some central concepts of this study.We position this study in the social-constructivist paradigm, and adopt an experience-centered approach to narratives (Squire, 2008). We build on Patterson’s (2008) definition of experience-centered narratives, and understand a narrative or a story to be ‘texts which bring stories of personal experience into being by means of the first person oral narration of past, present, future or imaginary experience’. We use a ‘narrative’ or a ‘story’ interchangeably. According to Squire (2008), the experience-centered approach assumes that narratives are: 1) sequential and meaningful; 2) definitely human; 3) re-present experience, in the sense of reconstructing it as well as mirroring it; and 4) display transformation or change. Sequence is embedded in dialogue, and meaningfulness is located in interviewer-interviewee interaction. Narratives are the means of human sense-making, and are jointly told between writer and reader, speaker and hearer (Ricour, 1991). The assumption is that experience cans, trough stories become a part of consciousness and that the context of a narrative plays an important role (Squire, 2008).