Expat or citizen? Raising the question of a potential impact of status on leader behavior

: Valerie Priscilla Goby, Abdelrahman Alhadhrami

Publisher: Emerald

: 2020

: International Journal of Organizational Analysis

: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS

: INT J ORGAN ANAL

: 28

: 5

: 1019

: 1030

: 12

: 1934-8835

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2019-1909

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the concept that expatriate status, as opposed to national citizen status, may impact leader behavior. The intention is not to pursue a research question carved out from the expatriation and leadership research streams but rather to raise the issue of non-citizenship status as potentially moderating leader behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used grounded theory methodology, including interviews to gather data on the behavior of non-citizen leaders in the UAE. The resulting 28 interview transcripts were analyzed using inductive coding to arrive at aggregate theoretical dimensions.FindingsTheir findings reveal a keen tendency among expatriate leaders to display organizational legitimacy by remaining sedulously within established organizational schemata and monitoring employees closely.Research limitations/implications - The study asks, rather than answers, a question and does not use an established theoretical framework, as its area of concern is not one that fits solely within the literatures on expatriation, international business, leadership, cross-cultural management or national citizenship. Furthermore, the context in which they conduct our investigation is the UAE whose workforce has a disproportionately high number of expatriates. Although this serves as a convenient context in which to study the rising occurrence of non-citizen leaders due to increased professional migration, the issue may be more meaningfully tested in geopolitical contexts with typical expatriate-citizen workforce ratios.Originality/valueThe central theoretical contribution of this preliminary study is to provide initial empirical evidence suggesting that the hitherto-ignored variable of national citizenship may be a significant one to address given increasing professional global migration.