ANH NGUYEN

// DISSERTATION PROJECT

Home Sweet Home Abroad: Enhancing and Utilizing Job Embeddedness among The Internationally Relocated Workers

Job embeddedness, which combines employees’ connectedness with their organizations, communities, and career pathways, is a powerful predictor of essential work outcomes among internationally relocated workers (IRWs). The current literature on the embeddedness of IRWs, however, highlights some gaps that hinder the effective application of job embeddedness in research and practice among this population. These limitations arise from the literature's negligence of cross-border relocation, which distinguishes the embeddedness of IRWs from that of native workers. In this thesis, we unfold the characteristics and antecedents of job embeddedness pertaining to the international relocation context, as well as the relationships between IRWs' embeddedness, intent to stay, and career satisfaction.

The content of this thesis consists of four papers. The first systematic literature review sheds light on factors influencing IRWs' organizational, community, and career embeddedness in the host country. We categorized these factors into four levels: situation, individual, organization, and institution, and subsequently discussed major gaps in current research. These gaps include insufficient insights into organizational- and institutional factors contributing to organizational embeddedness, scant evidence on personality and organizational influences on community embeddedness, a lack of relevant factors in the measurement of embeddedness in host communities, and limited research on career embeddedness. The second systematic literature review focused on the characteristics of job embeddedness among IRWs. Three notable characteristics elucidated IRWs' embeddedness: intensified spillover and crossover effects, as well as transnationalism. The augmented spillover and crossover effects act as mechanisms through which IRWs build their connectedness with host country domains from scratch with limited resources. Transnationalism, at the same time, expands the concept of job embeddedness by depicting IRWs' concurrent embeddedness in multiple countries. Discovering these three characteristics significantly enriches theory, for instance, by questioning the effect of a single-domain or single-country embeddedness on IRWs' retention and enlightening the reciprocity between IRWs and their family members in the embedding process. As a result, it is necessary to incorporate new methods, such as a person-centered approach or dyadic data analysis, to research embeddedness among IRWs.

This leads to two empirical studies in this thesis. The first empirical study employed the person-centered approach and latent class analysis (LCA) to reveal the embedding types existing among the IRW population. Furthermore, we examined the role of personal initiative in the emergence of such embedding types and their relationships to retention intent. Results revealed four embedding types among IRWs, including 'host country community-focused embedder,' 'host country career-focused embedder,' 'home country community-focused embedder,' and 'transnational embedder.' IRWs' intent to stay in host countries and organizations was associated with their embedding types. Strikingly, transnational embedders demonstrated the strongest tendency to stay, beyond those primarily rooted in the host nation. Among IRWs primarily connected to the host countries, those who built their connectedness through community were more likely to settle and remain in their jobs than those focused on their careers. The findings further indicated the role of personal initiative in embedding types, whereby the more initiative IRWs demonstrated, the more likely they prospered in transnational and host country embeddedness, instead of being anchored to their home nations.

The final empirical study concentrated on a sub-population of IRWs, specifically dual-earner expatriate couples (DEECs). We examined the dyadic influences of self-enhancing humor, a personal resource, on their community embeddedness, and subsequently, career satisfaction. By applying the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), we demonstrated that a partner's community embeddedness mediated the relationship between their humor and career satisfaction. The effects of a partner's humor, furthermore, directly and positively crossed over to another's community embeddedness and career satisfaction. However, only the male's humor promotes the female's career satisfaction through deepening her connectedness with the host community.

Building on the results, we present three major contributions. The first contribution consists of the first insights into multi-level antecedents and theoretical elucidation of job embeddedness among IRWs. This opens doors for several future research directions utilizing a far-reaching theoretical lens, innovative and suitable methods, and identified research gaps. Second, we unveiled two original personal antecedents (i.e., personal initiative and self-enhancing humor) and outcomes (i.e., career satisfaction) of IRWs' embeddedness at both individual and couple levels. On one hand, we evidenced the benefits of innovative methods such as LCA and APIM in researching IRWs' embeddedness, which were pioneers in the literature until now. On the other hand, we paved the way for more positive and resource-focused endeavors in research on IRWs' embeddedness. The last contribution involves recommendations for stakeholders, such as HRM practitioners, immigration policy makers, and career coaches, to efficiently utilize and enrich job embeddedness among IRWs.

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// ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

2017 - 2018
Master's degree (M.Sc.) in Social and Organizational Psychology at Leiden University, The Netherlands
Thesis: “Fear at work of Employees: Tests of the validity of a measurement instrument.”
Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS)

2009 - 2013
Bachelor's degree (B.A.) in Personnel Organization Psychology at Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
Thesis: “The organizational culture model of Worldwide Orphans Foundation in Vietnam.“
Scholarships for Excellence Academic Performance

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// PUBLICATIONS

Nguyen, A., & Andresen, M. (2023). “Many places to call home”: A typology of migrants’ job embeddedness and its relationship to personal initiative, intent to stay in the host country, and intent to stay in the organization. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, in print. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2023.2289497  (6.026 Impact Factor)

Nguyen, A., & Andresen, M. (2023). Job embeddedness among internationally relocated workers between spillover effects, crossover effects, and transnationalism: A review and agenda for future research. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, in print. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2023.2287548  (6.026 Impact factor)

Nguyen, A., & Andresen, M. (2023). "A laugh a day keeps the failure away": The role of self-enhancing humor and host country community embeddedness in career satisfaction of dual-earner expatriate couples. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1125136. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1125136

Nguyen, A., & Andresen, M. (2023). Expatriates within the pandemic: two sides of the same coin. In: A. I. Mockaitis, E. O'Connor (Eds.), The kaleidoscope of global migration: International business perspectives in a turbulent world, Palgrave.

Nguyen, A. N. (2022). Multi-level factors influencing job embeddedness among migrant employees: A systematic literature review. In Andresen, M. (Ed.), Wanderlust to wonderland?: Exploring key issues in expatriate careers: Individual, organizational, and societal insights, 159-191. Bamberg, University of Bamberg Press. DOI: 10.20378/irb-55776

Nguyen, A. N. & Andresen. M. (2022). Future Research on Self-initiated Expatriation: Emerging Topic. In Andresen, M. (Ed.), Key issues in international careers: Individual, organisational, and societal insights in a European context, 283-296. Bamberg, University of Bamberg Press. DOI: 10.20378/irb-55785

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// CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

Nguyen, A. & Andresen, M. (2023) A Laugh A Day Keeps The Failure Away: How Humor and Embeddedness Promote Expatriate Couples’ Success, Paper presented at Academy of Management Conference, Boston/USA, August 4 - 8, 2023.

Nguyen, A., & Andresen, M. (2022). Job embeddedness in the international migration context between spillover effects, crossover effects, and transnationalism: A review and agenda for future research. In: Proceedings of the Academy of International Business 2022 Conference, ID 427, Miami/USA, July 6 - 9, 2022.

Nguyen, A. & Andresen. M. (2022). „A laugh a day keeps the failure away“: How do self-enhancing humor and community embeddedness promote subjective career success of dual-earner migrant couples? Poster presented at GENIAL Forschen Exhibition, Bamberg, 2022.

Nguyen, A. & Andresen, M. (2021) How Job Embeddedness of Migrant Employees Look Like? Empirical Evidence of Embedding Types and Relationships with Personal Initiative, Intent to Stay in Host Country and Intent to Stay in Organization, Paper presented at European Academy of Management Conference, 2021.

Nguyen, A. & Andresen, M. (2021) “Many places to call home": empirical evidence of embedding types and relationships with personal initiative, intent to stay in host country, and intent to stay in organization, Paper presented at Academy of Management Conference. Best Paper in Organizational Behavior/ Human Resource Management/ Organizational Theory Finalist at Academy of Management Conference 2021.

Nguyen, A. & Andresen, M. (2019), Why migrant employees stay abroad: a systematic review on job embeddedness-based model and presentation of a research map, Paper presented at European Academy of Management Conference, Lisbon, 2019.

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// EXPERIENCE

Academic Experience

09/2018 - 07/2022
Early Stage Researcher - GLOMO, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany

Non-academic Experience

10/2017 - 03/2018
Intern for HR Business Partner Global Supply Chain at Henkel Global Supply Chain B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands

09/2016 - 10/2017
Training Coordinator (RTC-SEA Region) at Tetra Park Vietnam Ltd.

07/2015 - 08/2016
Senior Training Officer at Manulife Vietnam Ltd.

2012 - 2013
Research Assistant for the Project "Camp Colors of Love Outcomes Evaluation" of the Worldwirde Orphans Foundation, Vietnam

Voluntary Experience

2010 – 2012
Team Leader for the Healing Heart Project (Pre-surgery Psychological support for patiens in Children Hospital 2), Vietnam

Image Credits: © Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences