Willing to go the extra mile: A qualitative exploration of work engagement among assigned expatriates

Work engagement is important for employee performance, yet little is known about expatriate engagement. Through e-interviews with 27 Nordic expatriates around the world, we explored which factors influenced expatriate work engagement. We found several novel antecedents to work engagement that were specific to the assigned expatriate context (being away from headquarters, pride in being chosen, culture, fewer distractions, succeeding in a foreign context, adjustment, location, and language) as well as expatriate-specific aspects of existing antecedents (e.g. feedback, autonomy and social environment) and formulate research propositions and questions to guide future research. Our paper contributes to the expatriate literature by exploring assigned expatriate work engagement in depth, as well as to the engagement literature by documenting engagement in a new occupational work setting, namely international assignments. Theoretical implications for existing research are discussed, and practical HR implications are outlined to help the parent organization better manage expatriate assignments.