Investigation into Stress Management and Preparation for International Assignments

Even before the internet took over the world and globalization progressed further, there was already an international exchange of labor in the workplace. Expatriates are deployed to position their company in foreign markets, coordinate work with subsidiaries and outsourced branches, or transfer know-how. International assignments affect various levels of a company, from skilled workers to top management. The unique experiences that come with living abroad can also be accompanied by stress, such as leaving behind one’s social environment, establishing living conditions in a new setting, communicating in a foreign language, or navigating cultural differences in social interactions.

To optimize an international assignment, which comes with costs and risks, human resources departments are well advised to prepare future expatriates accordingly. Media University student Julia van den Woldenberg has presented an insightful investigation into stress management in the management of international assignments in her master’s thesis in Economic Psychology. In a two-step study, she initially surveyed 50 participants with work experience abroad using an online questionnaire and conducted in-depth problem-centered interviews with 10 of them. The focus of her research is to determine whether identifying the personal stress processing profile of expatriates can lead to individualized preventive measures and resources for stress reduction. Her work thus addresses a relevant question for HR and talent development practices, as well as for the leaders of expatriates, from which actionable recommendations and further research needs can be derived.