Purpose Exogenous crises do not merely disrupt organizational practices but can trigger fundamental reconfigurations of the institutional arrangements that underpin them. This study examines how a global crisis (COVID-19 pandemic) induced a shift to virtual global mobility (VGM), disrupting established regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars of global mobility and creating conditions for their reconfiguration. Design/methodology/approach This longitudinal qualitative study draws on two waves of semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 and 2022 with global mobility (GM) professionals and VGM workers across multinational corporations. Using an abductive analytical approach, empirical data were analyzed through Scott's three-pillar institutional framework, complemented by institutional work theory, to examine reconfiguration across organizational and individual levels. Findings By showcasing institutions as dynamic systems throughout the COVID-19 crisis, we uncover the evolving regulations, norms and cognitive structures, revealing how institutional change propagates across pillars rather than within them in isolation. As GM professionals and VGM workers adapt to the new work context and redefine global mobility rules, accepted standards and shared meanings, VGM emerged not as a settled alternative but as a practice with fragile legitimacy: operationally normalized yet not cognitively taken for granted. Practical implications VGM broadens access to international career development, offering more inclusive pathways for dual-career couples while preserving professional continuity and containing assignment costs. Realizing these benefits, however, depends on purposefully designed roles, clearly articulated expectations and sustained investment in cultural learning and relational embeddedness, which virtual settings can otherwise erode. Organizations should, therefore, adopt a differentiated mobility portfolio, reserving physical relocation for positions demanding intensive cultural immersion or complex knowledge transfer and complementing virtual arrangements with strategic business travel. Originality/value This study shows how a global crisis triggered lasting changes to the global mobility institution, accelerating a fundamental shift in how international work is understood and practiced. It demonstrates that crisis-induced institutional change is not uniform; each pillar responds through its own mechanism and at its own pace. The study introduces the concept of fragile legitimacy, capturing how a new work form can become operationally normal without yet being cognitively accepted. It also contributes a dual-perspective design, revealing the tensions between how organizations govern virtual mobility and how employees experience it.
Purpose Despite the growing reliance on virtual international assignments in multinational corporations, how professionals negotiate professional legitimacy, belonging and cross-cultural trust within formal international assignment roles without physical relocation remains insufficiently understood. Grounded in Identity Work Theory, this study examines these efforts as translocal identity work in the absence of the spatial and cultural immersion that characterizes traditional expatriation. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple case study was conducted across three multinational corporations in three sectors (technology, consulting, manufacturing). Thirty semi-structured interviews were carried out with virtual assignees, defined as employees formally assigned to manage cross-border responsibilities from their home base without planned relocation. The interviews were analyzed using a team-based thematic approach, with visual network elicitation used to prompt discussion of assignment-related relationships. Findings Three interrelated themes illuminate translocal identity work: (1) translocal professionalism, capturing the global professional identity and belonging virtual assignees sought to sustain while remaining locally based; (2) digital diplomacy, involving deliberate relational labor to build and sustain cross-cultural trust through digital channels and (3) perceived psychologically safe inclusion, capturing leadership-mediated conditions supporting or constraining open voice and authentic participation. Participants' accounts suggest that symbolic and social proximity can support professional legitimacy and belonging without relocation. However, persistent marginality and relational strain indicate that these efforts remain contingent on organizational and leadership support. Originality/value The study introduces translocal identity work as an empirically grounded concept that contributes to global mobility research by examining the gap between holding a formal international assignment mandate and experiencing recognition as a legitimate cross-border actor. Drawing on Identity Work Theory, it explains how virtual assignees seek professional legitimacy and belonging through digital presence management and relational practices under varying conditions of perceived psychological safety. Rather than demonstrating that symbolic proximity substitutes for physical relocation, the findings identify reported circumstances in which these efforts support recognition or remain fragile. They also suggest context-sensitive implications for supporting the identity and relational work involved in virtual international assignments.
Purpose Underpinned by the cultural attachment theory (Hong, 2017), this study examines the importance of home country (or home domicile) attachment styles on people's preference to stay or leave their home country/domicile to work overseas. Design/methodology/approach We conducted two studies (total N = 965), one in Singapore and one in Hong Kong, places with contrasting socio-political contexts. Hypotheses were tested through regression analyses. Findings While secure attachment to home domicile was associated with a lower preference for working overseas, dismissive attachment was associated with a higher preference. These associations remained significant after controlling for respondents' openness to experience and cultural adaptability in the Singaporean sample, whereas the effects for secure attachment remained robust even after controlling for political orientations and identifications with Hong Kong and China in the Hong Kong sample. Originality/value Our findings contribute to the literature by identifying home country attachment styles as a distinct psychological factor predicting mobility intentions. They also contribute to research on talent management and global talent management by suggesting that employees with different home country attachment styles may offer different forms of value to multinational enterprises: those high in dismissive attachment may be more open to expatriation assignments, whereas those high in secure attachment may support local talent retention. Still, as both studies were conducted among university students in Singapore and Hong Kong, caution is warranted when generalizing the findings to other populations and geographical contexts.
Purpose The authors of the present study seek to answer why Egyptian physicians migrate from extreme work contexts in Egypt to other African countries despite similarly constrained professional and living conditions in destination contexts. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a qualitative research design. Data were collected through 22 semi-structured interviews with Egyptian physicians practising in Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Kenya. The interview data were analyzed using the Gioia methodology, following a systematic inductive approach to identify first-order concepts, second-order themes and aggregate dimensions. Findings The authors identified three interrelated motives: life–career recalibration motives (financial arbitrage, temporal relief, accelerated advancement), professional re-legitimation motives (recognition shift, restored professional respect, institutional permeability) and humanitarian–dignity motives (humanitarian mobility, dignified living), which collectively underpin physicians' migration from the Egyptian healthcare sector to comparable African contexts. Originality/value This study extends extant research on physician migration by empirically examining intra-African (South–South) mobility, a dimension that remains comparatively underdeveloped within global health workforce scholarship.
Purpose This study, by examining how locally hired parent country nationals (PCNs) in emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) experience and manage paradoxical tensions through boundary-spanning practices, provides an integrative perspective of how the gains and losses of boundary spanning are co-produced. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on 73 semi-structured interviews with locally hired PCNs and organizational expatriates in Chinese MNC subsidiaries in Japan, this study employs an abductive analysis informed by paradox theory to identify boundary-spanning roles and the paradoxes associated with locally hired PCNs. Findings Locally hired PCNs enact four boundary-spanning roles – coordinative link-pin, relational broker, operational mediator, and knowledge facilitator – that expose them to performing, belonging, organizing, and learning paradoxes. The same practices that provide benefits also create strain and vulnerability, suggesting that gains and losses are interdependent and co-produced. Furthermore, the findings suggest that paradox management reproduces and intensifies tensions for boundary spanners. Originality/value This study advances boundary-spanning research by theorizing gain–loss interdependence and conceptualizing boundary spanning as a paradox management practice. It also extends paradox theory by demonstrating how managing paradoxes may reinforce tensions and highlights the structurally ambiguous position of locally hired PCNs in EMNC subsidiaries.
