Employment status: Medium (middle managers; technical/specialists)

Employment track: Long domestic relation with current employer (at least, five years)

Previous international work experience: Low (up to one year)

Career stage: Expatriation follows “Plateau” or is “End of Career” stage

Expatriate policy: Functionalist or Dynamic

Opt-in decision driven by mutual trust and past and future reciprocity expectations

Traditional psychological contract, based on a perceived shared mutual interest in sustaining the employment relation long-term

Expatriate willingness of a conformist nature, manifested or subsumed to the goal of preserving existing psychological contract and maintain a sense of social and organizational continuity

Employment status: Medium or high (middle or top managers)

Employment track: Short to medium term relation with current employer (1–3 years)

Previous international work experience: Moderate (1–3 years)

Career stage: Expatriation as “Beginning” or “Expansion” stage

Expatriate policy: Dynamic

Opt-in decision is primarily opportunistic and utilitarian: assignment viewed as career advancement resource/capital

Transactional psychological contract, short-termed, oriented to economic or social capital gains

Expatriate willingness of a transactional nature, mirrored in attempts to leverage existing international work assignments as strategic opportunities to expand individual action and career resources possibilities

Employment status: Medium (middle managers; technical/specialists)

Employment track: Medium to long relation with current employer organization (at least, 3 years)

Previous international work experience: Low (up to one year)

Career stage: Expatriation follows “Plateau” stage

Expatriate policy: Functionalist

Opt-in decision marked by passive/defensive behaviors and resignation, an overall sense of beyond of personal control dependency (career stagnation and/or lack of options, fear of unemployment)

Compelled opt-in decision heightening the chance of dysfunctional expatriate adjustment, as well as reports of psychological contract breaches or violation, with impact in expatriate performance (e.g. early return decisions, voluntary dismissal)

Expatriate willingness seems broken, being manifested through withdrawal behaviors and hyphenated job commitment