Title: Medical requests for assistance from globally mobile populations: contrasting international assignees from different sectors

Authors: Robert L. Quigley; Lisbeth Claus; Michael Dothan

Addresses: International SOS Assistance Inc., 3600 Horizon Boulevard, Suite 300, Trevose, PA 19053, USA ' Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301, USA ' Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301, USA

Abstract: The requests for assistance to an assistance service provider of international assignees and their dependents employed in corporate, governmental and non-governmental organisations were compared in terms of closing diagnoses and case outcome types. Using institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we hypothesise that these sectors have different approaches to duty of care that lead to different medical diagnoses and outcomes when international assignees need assistance for issues impacting their health. The findings indicate that there are differences in duty of care between the sectors with international assignees sent by government and non-governmental organisation employers experiencing different medical diagnoses and case outcomes upon diagnosis from those sent by corporate employers. These results have important implications for managing the duty of care considerations and the necessity of providing support for international assignees and their dependents.

Keywords: international assignees; duty of care; medical assistance; public sector; private sector; non-profit organisations; requests for assistance; assistance service providers; institutional theory; resource-based view; RBV; medical outcomes; medical diagnosis; government organisations; non-governmental organisations; corporate employers; health support; employee support.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2015.072224

European Journal of International Management, 2015 Vol.9 No.6, pp.712 - 736

Received: 18 Feb 2015
Accepted: 17 Jul 2015
Published online: 05 Oct 2015 *

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