Managers' interest in international assignments: the role of work and career satisfaction

As business globalizes, organizations need to attract increasing numbers of qualified managers for international assignments. An understanding of the motivation underlying managers' intention to accept such assignments would therefore be valuable. The purpose of this research was to examine relations between work attitudes and interest in international assignments. Three hundred and fifty Canadian managers responded to a questionnaire assessing their work attitudes as well as their interest in international assignments. It was found that specific facets of job satisfaction (company identification, satisfaction with co-workers, and satisfaction with financial rewards) were negatively related to interest in international assignments. It was also found that the relation between career satisfaction and interest in international assignments was moderated by managers' general beliefs about such assignments. Finally, the results showed that expected satisfaction with specific Job characteristics in a future job (opportunity to use competencies, to travel, and extrinsic rewards) were positively related to managers' interest in international assignments. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for human resource planning in global organizations making use of international assignments. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.