Openness as a factor underlying successful expatriation: A brief report of project iGOES

Deller, J., Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Albrecht, A.-G., & Paulus, F. M.
In X. Dai & G.-M. Chen (eds.),
Intercultural communication competence (pp. 356-365).
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
(2014)

Organizations that conduct business globally feel an increasing need to send employees on international assignments. Such international assignments are a challenge both for the organization and its employees. Reports from the applied and also the scholarly community reveal that reliable, valid, and easily applicable methods for selecting, preparing, and developing expatriate workers are crucial to the success of international assignments in general. This chapter provides an overview of project iGOES (international Generalizability of Expatriate Success Factors), which investigates the relevance of demographic variables, background characteristics, and individual differences traits in predicting expatriate adjustment and success. The most comprehensive project of its kind, iGOES systematically investigated whether relevant success factors differ across world regions expatriates are active in. The chapter illustrates the usefulness of the approach by focusing on and summarizing results for the personality trait of openness.