Therefore, through
international assignment selection, it is possible to identify those individuals with the requisite individual characteristics to benefit
from developmental assignments (Caligiuri & Tarique, 2009, 2006; Caligiuri, 2000a; Leiba-O'Sullivan, 1999). For example, those
with affiliation oriented personality characteristics will be more likely to gain culture-specific knowledge on assignment because
they are more likely to spend time with host nationals, learning behavioral responses for the given host country. In a recent study
Caligiuri and Tarique (2006) examined the ways in which organizations develop successful global business leaders. Based on data
from over two-hundred global leaders, they found that high contact cross-cultural leadership development experiences and the
leaders' personality characteristics were predictors of effectiveness in global leadership activities. Testing hypotheses based on
social learning theory and the contact hypothesis, the results showed that extroversion moderated the relationship between high
contact cross-cultural leadership development experiences and effectiveness on global leadership activities. In other words, highly
extroverted leaders with a greater number of high contact cross-cultural leadership development experiences are the most
effective on global leadership activities. These studies point to promising predictors for achieving the desired goals associated with
international assignments and argue for a more structured, assessment oriented approach to identifying strong candidates.