Abstract
Professional athletes moving abroad for their career is a novel phenomenon in IHRM. This exploratory paper charts the motives of sports expatriates to move abroad to play, as well as integration support and challenges. A survey was conducted with 108 sports expatriates in nine different sports. The main motivations to move abroad were the search for new challenges, followed by an interest to experience life abroad. In terms of challenges, different coaching style and team communication were most often mentioned. Support was mainly informal, through team mates rather than professional providers. Our paper contributes to the literature because it is one of the first studies focusing on sports expatriates from an international HR perspective. Our study provides information on a vulnerable group of expatriates; they are young and live under extreme performance pressure. Sports expatriates need all the support they can get, and yet, very little professional support is offered.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication date | 2017 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Event | 3rd Global Conference on International Human Resource Management - St Johns University, New York, United States Duration: 18. May 2017 → 20. May 2017 Conference number: 3 http://ler.la.psu.edu/cihrs/IHRMconference |
Conference
| Conference | 3rd Global Conference on International Human Resource Management |
|---|---|
| Number | 3 |
| Location | St Johns University |
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | New York |
| Period | 18/05/2017 → 20/05/2017 |
| Internet address |