Characteristics of International Work: Narratives of the Global Manager

This study extends our understanding of the notion of the global manager by empirically examining their personal experiences as coordinators across multiple geographies and cultures. Basing our work on in-depth interviews, we study narrative fragments of 45 global managers, identifying the most prominent issues in fulfilling the job of worldwide coordinator and the impact of their work on their personal life. The findings further indicate that global managers' experiences are characterized by three tensions: distance versus closeness, hierarchy versus culture, and work flexibility versus family equilibrium. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.