Despite terminology variations, it is clear from the literature that short-term international assignments are required by the employing organizations, are temporary in nature, and do not exceed one year. Tahvanainen et al.(2005, p. 670) found that short-term international assignments are used in the same way as expatriate assignments: ‘for position filling, skill transfer or management control’, as well as ‘to simultaneously facilitate management development’ (2005, p. 670). Short-term assignments