An initial look at motivations & personality traits of American construction professionals working for international firms

This quantitative research study explored why American construction professionals choose to live and work overseas. In other words, what are the motivating factors that attribute not only to the willingness of U.S. employees to accept expatriate positions, but also the ability to see projects through to completion? As international corporate activities increase, the staffing of their operations involves more strategic concerns. However, foreign assignments have many differences, and dissatisfaction with host countries is a known cause of expatriate failure (Chen, Tzeng, & Tang, 2005). In fact, failure rates have been estimated to range from 25% to 40% and associated costs for each failure is estimated from $55,000 to $85,000 (Mendenhall & Oddou, 1985).The following general themes were examined through a 26-question web-based survey: (1) What initially motivated you to try overseas construction work? (2) What motivates you to continue working overseas? and (3) What personality traits are essential to a successful overseas construction career?Employees from nine international design and construction firms were surveyed and the results were analyzed to form conclusions that may be helpful to human resource departments and managers of international construction operations.