The role of perceived career prospects and international orientation in determining job satisfaction of MNE employees: A moderated mediation model

• Author: Jean‐Luc Cerdin,Yuan Liao,Kushal Sharma
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21955
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018

THE CHANGING NATURE OF EXPATRIATION

The role of perceived career prospects and international

orientation in determining job satisfaction of MNE employees:

A moderated mediation model

Jean-Luc Cerdin

1

| Kushal Sharma

2

| Yuan Liao

3

1

ESSEC Business School, Cergy-Pontoise

Cedex, France

2

SolBridge International School of Business,

Dong-gu Daejeon, Republic of Korea

3

IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain

Correspondence

Kushal Sharma, SolBridge International School

of Business, 151-13 Samsung 1-Dong, Dong-

gu Daejeon 34613, Republic of Korea.

Email: kushal@solbridge.ac.kr

In a multinational enterprise (MNE) that does not reveal to its employees whether they are

included in the organization's talent pool, we explore how employees' perceptions regarding

their inclusion or noninclusion in the pool affects their perceived career prospects (PCPs) in the

organization and their job satisfaction (JS). Specifically, we hypothesize that MNE employees'

self-perception as talent relates positively to their PCP. We also predict that PCP mediates the

relationship between talent perception and JS, and that this relationship is moderated by

employees' cultural intelligence and internationalism career anchor. We find evidence of a

strong relationship between the direct effects we predict. However, contrary to expectations,

cultural intelligence does not moderate the relationship between PCP and JS. We discuss the

implications of such findings and suggest areas for future research.

KEYWORDS

closed TM approach, core self-evaluations, cultural intelligence, internationalism career

anchor, job satisfaction, MNEs, perceived career prospects, talent management, talent

perception

1|INTRODUCTION

In recent years, both academics and practitioners have displayed

increasing interest in talent management (TM)—the subfield within

strategic human resource management that deals with management

issues related to high-performing employees (also known as talents).

The central tenet of TM is that human capital—that is, talent—can

contribute to an organization's competitive advantage (Chadwick,

2017). Although the basic underlying logic of TM is similar for all

organizations, TM takes on an additional layer of complexity in multi-

national enterprises (MNEs). Since MNEs operate across several geo-

graphic boundaries and national borders, their TM efforts take on a

global component. Researchers have termed TM with an international

component as global talent management (GTM) (Tarique &

Schuler, 2010).

One recurring issue in GTM is talent retention: it is hard to retain

talent because their superior performance makes them desirable to

competitors (Groysberg, Lee, & Nanda, 2008). Since developing tal-

ents requires a lot of resources and since they are an organization's

potential leaders either at present or in the near future (Mäkelä,

Björkman, & Ehrnrooth, 2010), retaining them is of utmost impor-

tance. To improve chances of retention, MNEs need to find candi-

dates who will be satisfied with their jobs and not only cope but

thrive in an international environment (Mäkelä, Suutari, Brewster,

Dickmann, & Tornikoski, 2016). Therefore, factors such as the willing-

ness to take on international assignments or cultural sensitivity

become central attributes for MNE employees. Given the importance

MNEs assign to cultural competencies of its future leaders (Thomas

et al., 2015), we can expect that MNE employees who have a favor-

able attitude toward working in an international environment will

receive preferential treatment from their organizations. When

employees receive special attention, they are likely to become satis-

fied with their jobs, which, in turn, will motivate them to continue

employment relationship with their organizations. Research suggests

that there a positive relationship between job satisfaction (JS) and

employee retention (e.g., Trevor, 2001). Thus, measuring and moni-

toring JS of talent as well as studying the antecedents of JS could

help an organization retain its talent.

DOI: 10.1002/tie.21955

Thunderbird Int Bus Rev. 2018;60:873–883. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tie © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 873