Glamour e sombras na expatriação de executivos e executivas globais: intercorrências no trabalho e na família

Abstract

The present thesis deals with the expatriation of qualified professionals, called global executives. Taken for granted by society, the practice of expatriation promotes significant changes in the way to work and living of these professionals, overflowing to the life of their spouses and children. The main objective of this thesis is to identify the influence of the expatriation experiences on the professional and personal actuation of the global executives and their spouses. The empirical survey conducted in Brazil and France demonstrates how global executives conceive and manage the imbrications between work and family during the expatriation process. The research was based on a qualitative approach, of hermeneutic nature, aiming to rescue the symbolic universe of the representations, meanings, subjectivity and willfulness of the subjects of this study. The interpretation of the collected data set was anchored on a transdisciplinary theoretical approach, involving anthropology, sociology, economy and philosophy. It was possible to note a significant difference between the discourse of the transnational companies on expatriation and the reality of those who experienced it - the global executives and their families, which revealed gaps, both in preparation and in the monitoring of the professionals in expatriation. The required international mobility of global executives is anchored by the support offered by their families, resulting, among other consequences, in ruptures in the professional career of actives spouses. While expatriation offers career opportunities and wealth, it also compromises the physical and psychical health of the family and the relations of conjugality and parenting of these professionals. It was noted that the reduced intensity of cultural exchanges in the workplace and in social life during the expatriation is considered as the result of a reductionist instrumental conception, present in the management programs of the transnational companies.