Balancing individual and organizational goals in global talent management: A mutual-benefits perspective

Drawing from the talent management and global mobility literatures, there is simultaneous pressure to address both organizational goals to place talent internationally, and individual goals of self-initiated expatriation. This raises important questions for the future of global talent management (GTM): how might individual and organizational goals be balanced to the mutual benefit of both parties? Qualitative data from pilot studies in multinational corporations demonstrate a largely financially driven balancing act between self-initiated and organization-assigned expatriate assignments. Building primarily from psychological contract theory, this study builds propositions for future research, and explores the implications for global talent management practice. 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: School of Labor & Employment Relations, Pennsylvania State University, 506e Keller, University Park, PA 16802, USA. Tel.: +1 814 867 3320; fax: +1 814 863 3578. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (E. Farndale), [email protected] (A. Pai), [email protected] (P. Sparrow), [email protected] (H. Scullion). 1 Tel.: +44 1524 510911; fax: +44 1524 381454. 2 Tel.: +353 91 493079; fax: +353 91 494510.