Multinational teams incorporating freelance expatriates in the construction industry: case studies of high-speed railways in China and Taiwan

Abstract

Freelance expatriates are an important element of the workforce in international projects that are relatively knowledge-intensive and highly specialized. Their expertise and knowledge, accumulated through experience gained by travelling from project to project, is a crucial asset for projects. Incorporating freelance expatriates into project teams allows firms to be flexible and competitive in the international market. However, despite a wide range of research on expatriation in fields such as human resource management and international business management, studies of freelance expatriates in the international construction industry have just begun. Little is known about the major challenges impeding their working relationship with their local colleagues. This paper addresses this question in four ways: (1) we identify eight challenges—expectation gaps, outsider effects, client–contractor tensions, cultural differences and subgroup formation, different values, different norms, different practices and language barriers in communications—from previous studies on ‘boundaryless careers’ (i.e., the careers of freelancers) and on international project teams; (2) we elaborate and refine the eight challenges via case studies on freelance expatriates’ working relationships in three high-speed rail projects in China and Taiwan; (3) we discuss the nature of these challenges from an institutional perspective—i.e., based on role definitions and division of labour in a labour market, signalling systems and reputational networks and (4) we identify potential strategies that could be used to deploy freelance expatriates more effectively in the construction industry.