Following a stint as an expatriate in South Korea, I developed a strong interest in global mobility and the internationalization of the workforce. I moved on to complete a doctorate in Management at the University of Goettingen, Germany, developing my research on boundary spanning employees and organizations.

As I experienced in Korea, globally mobile employees and leaders often face difficulties adapting to host countries and organizations. These problems can be influenced by individual, organizational, cultural, and institutional factors. However, countries such as Korea need to attract and retain these internationally sourced employees to deal with e.g., an ageing population or national skill gaps. My research responds to these and other problems.

Much of my work takes a micro-macro approach, starting with the individual and how they adjust and perform in overseas working environments. Contextualizing this my research investigates the organizational, institutional, and country level dependencies that influence individuals’ processes. Because of this approach, my works lies at the interfaces of OB, IB, and (I)HRM. I have launched several surveys, including leading a large, multi-wave survey of approx. 1900 expatriates across 30 host countries, to tease out the boundary influences of formal and informal institutional environments.

My research has been published in internationally recognized journals such as the Journal of International Business Studies, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Human Resource Management Review.

This research background has greatly informed my approach to teaching. I bring relevant areas of my research, and experiences working abroad, and integrate them into teaching wider subjects of leadership and organizational behaviour.