Abstract
Abstract
Expatriates can confront ethical problems during international assignments that require complex processes to resolve. With the help of a narrative inquiry, this study increases existing knowledge about the ways expatriates understand their moral agency in situations in which they are confronted with ethical problems during international assignments. A conceptualisation of an expatriate’s moral agency was developed, and research data were collected through 20 interviews with Finnish expatriates who worked in China and the US. Three forms of moral agency were conceptualised: ‘instructed moral agency’, ‘business-based moral agency’ and ‘stagnant moral agency’. The expatriates’ construction of moral agency was a dynamic and contextual process embedded with rational and emotional considerations. The conclusion drawn from the evidence is that expatriates’ moral agency is bounded in varied ways. Moreover, the topic of bounded moral agency can be fruitful for theoretically and empirically examining moral agency in expatriation in the future.
Keywords
Business, ethical problem, ethics, expatriate, moral agency, narrative, organisation, qualitative research