A primary motivation for further service overseas is career based. There is acceptance within some of the families that promotion is predicated on a satisfactory overseas record, and that as such, it cannot be avoided: ‘‘If you don’t serve overseas in your rank, you will not get promoted
....this is something I have to consider’’ (FAM 01S), similarly another respondent noted: ‘‘There is no real motivation at the moment, it’s just something that has to be done, and the only way out of it is to leave the organization’’ (FAM 03S). The implications of changing motivations to undertake short-term international assignments over time is important for international human resource management theory and practice advancement, in that it suggests a closer contextual and individual analysis of short-term international assignments is required.