The JGM BitBlog: International Business Travel - Flying High, For Now.
Mina Westman, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Shoshi Chen, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Dov Eden, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
International Business Travel (IBT) has grown greatly in recent years. However, IBT is a double-edge sword. International travelers can gain much from their travels, but they can also experience stress that may impair their health. Both positive and negative results from IBT are well established in research. These variegated outcomes render it incumbent on the travelers themselves, on their managers, and on the HR departments in their organizations to maintain awareness of the threats to travelers' health and well-being and to act to protect them.
The positive aspects of IBT include career development, enhanced status and prestige, learning aspects of the business that are not apparent in the home country, meeting new overseas friends and acquaintances leading to new connections and career opportunities, experiencing a new culture, and temporary escape from chronic pressures emanating from the home organization and from home and family. Also, for some, IBT enables pampering first-class or business-class flights and rather fancy dining and accommodations.
However, these blessings often incur curses as well. There are many stressors that international business travelers must endure. These include the stress of travel itself involving odd hours and jetlag, waiting in long airport security lines, flight cancellations, delays, rerouting to alternate airports, and unsavory airline food. The lodging accommodations may not be suitable. Perhaps more stressful is separation from family. This is stressful for many business travelers while away from home and often more stressful upon returning home. Important things may have changed during the traveler's absence, and stress crossover from work to family as well as crossover from family to work are common experiences upon returning. The traveler returns home with stress built up during the trip and finds a home where stress has built up during the traveler's absence. Stress crosses over from traveler to home and from home to traveler. Thus, the blessings of IBT are reaped at the cost of stress during travel and upon returning home. The family experiences stress as well, and the research literature has neglected children.
IBT is flying high now. But ever-growing costs, constantly improving on-line communication, including group meetings and even large conferences, plus growing concern over the pollution caused by air travel, may reduce the frequency of IBT. It could go the way of the fax machine in the foreseeable future.
To read this article, please see the Journal of Global Mobility publication:
Westman, M., Chen, S. and Eden, D. (2023), "International business travel: a review of theory and research", Journal of Global Mobility, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 461-512.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-12-2022-0067" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-12-2022-0067
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Professor Jan Selmer, Ph.D.
Founding Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Global Mobility (JGM)
Department of Management, Aarhus University
E-mail:
selmer@mgmt.au.dkTwitter: @JanSelmer_JGM
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