Mentoring in International Assignments: A Personality Traits Perspective

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of personality and mentorship on expatriates’ psychological well-being. The authors argue that certain personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience) have positive effects on expatriates’ psychological well-being and that these personality traits enable them to derive a greater benefit from mentorship. By doing so, this study identifies for which personality traits which type of mentoring (home or
host country mentor) is most beneficial.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on socioanalytic theory, the authors develop theory-driven hypotheses and test them against data of 334 expatriates.
Findings – The study shows that several personality traits as well as home country mentorship have a significant positive impact on psychological well-being, whereas host country mentorship shows no significant positive effects. Moreover, the study indicates that home and host country mentorship partially
moderates the relationship between personality traits and psychological well-being.
Originality/value – Since the authors derive important implications for the selection process of expatriates as well as for the implementation of mentoring in multinational corporations, this study is of value for researchers and practitioners in the areas of human resource management and organizational studies.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEmployee Relations
Volume39
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)1100-1130
Number of pages31
ISSN0142-5455
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2017

    Research areas

  • Management studies - Expatriates, Mentoring, personality traits, International assignments, Psychological well-being

DOI

Recently viewed

Activities

  1. MIS Quarterly Executive (Zeitschrift)
  2. Evidence orientation in Earth System Governance Research
  3. Problem Pressure, DRGs, and the Role of and Ideas in Healthcare System Change
  4. 7th IAMTE-Conference - ARLE 2013
  5. Impact of Auditor and Audit Firm Rotation on Accounting and Audit Quality. A critical Analysis of the EC Regulation Draft
  6. "A woman doesn't have to pay": Metapragmatic insights into gendered identity construction and payment negotiations in a first date setting.
  7. Mythos und Wahrheit
  8. Reform des DCGK
  9. Challenging the functionality of audits: Examining the bureaucratization of risks of industrial accidents through the eyes of Franz Kafka, novelist and auditor
  10. Workshop: "Transfer of Tourism Knowledge and Tourism Results – Publishing Issues of the Future" - 2006
  11. Drama techniques for foreign language teaching
  12. Co-constructing worth in precarious work: The case of the Influencer Pay Gap Community
  13. Organizational Practices for the Aging Workforce: A Cross Cultural Validation of the Later Life Workplace Index
  14. Vortragsreihe: Schreiben-Lesen-Sprechen
  15. Mobile Communication in Germany: The Meaning of ‘Handy’ in Everyday Life
  16. Presentation of the ADORE-project
  17. Environmental and Resource Economics (Fachzeitschrift)
  18. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (Externe Organisation)
  19. Network Governance, Social Learning and Sustainability Transitions (with D. Günther)
  20. Workshop zum Standard-Setting Sozialindex 2012
  21. Gamification of Language Leaning
  22. Long-term Internships of Physical Education Pre-service Teachers in the Pandemic: A Mixed-methods Anaylsis
  23. D’EST at Scriptings: Lene Markusen, Sisters Alike. Female Identities in Post-Utopian
  24. Judgment and Decision Making (Fachzeitschrift)
  25. Pierre Bourdieu im ästhetischen Feld