Boundaryless or Traditional? Career Anchor Variations Among Company Assigned and Self-Initiated International Banking Expatriates

The purpose of this study is to explore the dominant career orientations of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) relative to traditional company assigned expatriates (AEs). Employing quantitative methods using a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) approach, this study examines a data sample of 418 expatriates (344 SIEs and 74 AEs) working in the Saudi Arabian banking industry to test the variations in the career orientations they exhibit. I employ Schein’s (1990) career anchor model to identify whether traditional and/or boundaryless career orientations can be detected among a comparative sample of SIEs and AEs employed in the banking industry. My point of departure is that AEs and SIEs may differ in terms of their international career orientations given their distinct route trajectories in moving abroad to pursue either organizational and/or individual-managed careers (Bonache, Brewster, Suutari, & Cerdin, 2017; Suutari et al., 2018; Suutari, Brewster, & Tornikoski, 2013). The results for the two career constructs show a significant main effect with a statistically significant difference between AEs and SIEs for a traditional career and a boundaryless career. The results indicate that SIEs exhibit more traditional career anchors represented by technical/functional competence and security/stability than their AE counterparts. With these findings, this study contributes to the career literature in two ways: (a) by elucidating aspects relating to the distinct directions of organizational and individual-managed careers and by (b) adding to the existing expatriate career literature through exploring the differences and similarities between comparable AEs and SIEs using the career anchors model.本研究旨在探讨自我外派者（self-initiated expatriates, SIEs）相较于传统公司外派员工（assigned expatriates, AEs）的主导职业取向。本研究采用定量研究方法，运用多元方差分析（Multivariate Analysis of Variance, MANOVA）分析范式，以沙特阿拉伯银行业的418名外派员工（其中344名自我外派者、74名公司外派员工）为研究样本，检验两类群体所展现的职业取向差异。本研究采用Schein（1990）提出的职业锚（career anchor）模型，旨在识别在银行业的对比样本中，是否存在传统职业取向及/或无边界职业（boundaryless career）取向。本研究的理论出发点在于：由于公司外派员工与自我外派者在跨国职业路径上存在显著差异——前者多遵循组织主导的职业发展轨迹，后者多以个体自主管理的职业路径赴海外谋求职业发展（Bonache、Brewster、Suutari及Cerdin, 2017；Suutari等, 2018；Suutari、Brewster及Tornikoski, 2013），因此二者的国际职业取向可能存在显著不同。针对两类职业建构的分析结果显示，二者存在显著主效应，即公司外派员工与自我外派者在传统职业取向和无边界职业取向上均存在统计学意义上的显著差异。结果表明，相较于公司外派员工，自我外派者展现出更多以技术/职能能力、安全/稳定性为代表的传统职业锚。本研究从两个维度丰富了职业领域的学术文献：其一，阐明了组织主导型职业与个体自主管理型职业的差异化发展方向；其二，借助职业锚模型对比分析公司外派员工与自我外派者的异同，进一步拓展了现有外派职业相关的研究文献。