Washington, DC— New research on global work assignments, 
Global Mindset Defined: Expat Success Strategy, has been released through a collaboration of the Worldwide ERC ® Foundation for Workforce Mobility, an education and charitable initiative for workforce mobility professionals and HR innovators, and Thunderbird School of Global Management, the highest-ranked school for international business. This highly relevant study, which provides research to define and explain the attributes which are common in successful expatriates, is published in Worldwide ERC®’s June issue of MOBILITY magazine.
"It takes a special blend of characteristics to add up to an outstanding expat who can be productive and accepted in an unfamiliar setting," said Cris Collie, Chief Executive Officer of Worldwide ERC®. "The right combination of characteristics – the global mindset – is more crucial than ever with the labor pool diminishing around the world and competition for workforce talent at an all-time high. This new study provides important insight to companies who wish to hone their selection and assessment processes to ensure a positive return on their investment for global employee assignments."
International assignments are hitting the mainstream as an integral part of the business strategy of today's global businesses, and can represent a significant investment of several hundred thousand dollars per employee as well. Selecting the right individuals for international postings - those with a higher-than-average likelihood of outstanding performance - will provide a critical competitive advantage for companies that build the competency to identify success potential in their new hires and/or current employees. Also compelling is the fact that a failed international assignment can cost a company far more than the original investment, and the potential loss of key management talent and productivity.
Global Mindset Defined: Expat Success Strategy is drawing significant interest from business and academic communities as globalization continues to expand . Mansour Javidan, professor and director for the Garvin Center for Cultures and Languages of International Management for Thunderbird, noted, "The success of every expat is due in large part to their ability to influence host country individuals, groups, and organizations with a different cultural perspective to achieve company goals. If we recognize that global mindset is a mix of individual attributes that support consensus-building among colleagues from different cultures, it is clear that the absence of this trait will make it difficult if not impossible for an expat to succeed in the international assignment."
The global mindset research points to three major components: Intellectual Capital, Psychological Capital, and Social Capital. Intellectual capital refers to knowledge, skills, understanding, and cognitive complexity. Psychological capital encompasses a set of psychological attributes that enable the expat to function successfully in the host country through an internal acceptance of different cultures and a strong desire to learn from new experiences. Social capital, the third and final piece of Global Mindset, involves the expat’s ability to build trusting relationships with local stakeholders, whether they are his/her employees, supply chain partners, or customers.
Worldwide ERC® Foundation-sponsored interviews with senior executives from various industries revealed that in the compressed “climate” of a short-term assignment, expats have little opportunity to learn as they go, so they must be prepared before they arrive. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the screening process for potential expats includes an assessment of their global mindset. Traditionally, companies have relied on technical, job-related skills as the main criterion for selecting candidates for overseas assignments, but it is now clear that assessing global mindset is equally if not more important.
Global mindset awareness will continue to shape the leadership pipeline of today’s business organizations – from hiring profiles to incentive structures. Companies armed with the tools to identify the best candidates for global positions will have a major advantage in this increasingly open workplace.
Read the full Global Mindset report.
Worldwide ERC® networks workforce mobility professionals and HR innovators, and is the recognized industry authority on relocation and international assignments in the U.S. and major global traffic areas. Worldwide ERC® is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Belgium, Brussels and Shanghai, China. Contact Worldwide ERC® at 703 842 3400, or visit
www.WorldwideERC.org.