On the motivations and career orientations of self-initiated and conventional expatriates employed in the Saudi Arabian banking industry: a two scale contextual validation and an inter-cohort crosssectional investigation with control

This cross-sectional inter-cohort study explores the dominant motivational factors and career orientations among conventional (CE) and self-initiated (SE) expatriates. Quantitative data was obtained from a sample of 344 SEs and 74 CEs working in the banking sector in Saudi Arabia. Firstly, a principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted to validate a pull-push model of motivations governing the decision to expatriate and a career anchors model. Secondly, six motivational hypotheses and eight career hypotheses derived from a review of the extant literature were tested by means of logistic regression using a forward stepwise procedure. The results of the contextual validation provided support for a five factor pull-push construct and for a nine-career-anchor construct model in contrast with the original eight-anchor model. The findings from the logistic regression analysis reveal that age, marital status and position level made significant contributions to the motivational factors model. The push-motives factor was the strongest predictor in this study to distinguish between CEs and SEs regardless of the effect of the control variables that were included in the model. The results also showed that none of the pull motivational factors produced significant results in predicting either cohort. With respect to career orientations, SEs were more anchored by the ‘pure challenge’ and ‘security and stability’ career orientations than their CE counterparts. The position level variable was the only control variable that made significant contributions to the career orientations model. The results also revealed that ‘technical and functional competence’ was among the top career orientations for this sample of CEs and SEs in the banking sector. The theoretical, empirical and practical implications arising from the research are set down and directions for future research are offered.