Career agency and person-environment fit:A study on female globally mobile employees in Japan

Jiayin Qin and Tomoki Sekiguchi

Discussion papers from Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University

Abstract: This study aims to understand how female globally mobile employees (GMEs), a group that is gaining a stronger presence in global work, exert their career agency within the context of structural constraints. Using theoretical perspectives of career-agency theory and person-environment fit as frames of reference, we collected 113 blog posts written by nineteen female GMEs and conducted semi-structured interviews with eleven female GMEs who are currently living and working in Japan. We found that our informants exercised career agency as a response to foreignness and gender related challenges. Through career-related agentic behaviors, our informants strove to increase their fit with their environments and to build career capital while interacting with different aspects of structural constraints. We also found people in different stages of global mobility exhibited different mindsets towards their foreignness, consequently influencing their career agency. This study presents a theoretical framework that highlights the dynamic interaction between structural constraints and the agency of female GMEs, advancing our understanding of career agency in women’s global work. Additionally, it recognizes the presence of expatriate residents as a distinct subgroup within female GME population, shedding light on the evolving ambiguous boundaries between SIEs and other related categories.

Keywords: globally mobile employees; self-initiated expatriates; expatriate residents; career agency; person-environment fit; gender; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49
Date: 2023-10
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kue:epaper:e-23-004

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