Our study confirms that there are different individual motivations with regards to short-term international assignments, within the context of appreciating that short-term international assignments are not optional, but a core part of membership in the Irish Defence Forces. However, the temporal dimension of changing motivations over time is not explored in IHRM. Our study, however, highlights that the motivations evolve over time. In FAM 03 for instance, the initial incentive was relatively carefree: ‘‘The early deployments were a sense of adventure – to see what it was like...and
I knew it was part of the job...of course financially there was an incentive as well’’ (FAM 03S), while the financial incentive was also underlined: ‘‘Money, that’s the main one, that’s the main motivation now’’ (FAM 02P).