Background

The characteristics of business have changed in recent decades. The nature of a company’s organization and conducting business has become geographically dispersed due to global management structures and the increase of project based work with suppliers and subcontractors (Beaverstock, Derudder, Faulconbridge &

Witlox, 2009). Although sophisticated virtual communication possibilities allow communication without physical meetings, face-to-face business interaction and personal contact between key persons are still significant, for example, in marketing, sales and negotiating deals (Aguilera, 2008; Davidson & Cope, 2003;

Faulconbridge, Beaverstock, Derudder & Witlox, 2009). Globalization requires global presence and, by implication, increases the need for global workers and international business travel (Nathan & Doyle, 2001).

Undertaking work outside of the regular workplace is not exceptional any longer, and mobility and internationalization of careers are almost an ordinary feature of working-life (Beaverstock et al., 2009). With the exception of economic recessions, which have temporarily reduced the amount of business trips, the number of those travelling abroad for work has constantly grown. In 2010, Finnish residents made 1.1 million business and professional trips abroad that involved overnighting in the destination country. During this same period, 154,000 work-related same-day trips were made abroad. In 2015, the number of overnight trips were 1.6 million and same-day trips 229,000. (Statistics Finland, 2016.) Internationally, the trend is similar, with the recent global survey undertaken by Cartus (2014) indicating that 50 % of companies expected to see the business travel volume increase over the next two years.

It is known that work involving international business travel can have positive outcomes to the traveller’s personal and professional growth; it can be stimulating, and travel may promote travellers’ careers (Dimitrova, Chia, Luk, Shaffer & Tay, 2012; Mayerhofer, Müller & Schmidt, 2010; Oddou, Mendenhall & Ritchie, 2000;

Starr & Currie, 2009; Welch & Worm, 2006). Work involving international travel is also associated with ‘downsides’ such as the injurious effect on physical and psychological health (Jensen, 2013; Patel, 2011; Westman & Etzion, 2002) as well as effects on private and family life. Although employees are increasingly taking business trips abroad, the empirical research addressing international business travellers (IBTs) is still scarce and focuses on quite limited issues. So far, the

majority of research concerning IBTs has concentrated on the health risks of travellers. According to several authors, international business travel is considered to cause negative impacts on travellers’ health and well-being such as travel-related illness and psychological disorders (Burkholder, Joines, Cunningham-Hill

& Xu, 2010; Liese, Mundt, Dell, Nagy & Demure, 1997; Mäkelä, Bergbom, Kinnunen & Tanskanen, 2014; Patel, 2011). International business travel has also been studied from the perspective of the travel management of organizations, concentrating e.g. on travel policies, cost issues and travel service purchasing processes (Collings, Scullion & Morley, 2007; Faulconbridge et al., 2009; Holma, 2012). The first article of this study concentrates on reviewing the existing literature on the work-family interface of IBTs and, in so doing, identifies promising directions for future research that addresses significant gaps existing in the research of work-family experiences of IBTs.

Although research interest has increased, there is still relatively little academic research exploring the consequences of travel on the personal lives of travellers, domesticity, family members, and family dynamics. Likewise, we are at present rather ignorant about how travellers and family members cope with the consequences of absences. Studies (e.g. Espino, Sundstrom, Frick, Jacobs &

Peters, 2002; Mäkelä, Kinnunen & Suutari, 2015; Nicholas & McDowall, 2012) have focused on the private life of travellers and have found travel to pose challenges on travellers’ personal lives. In Finland, where this particular study was conducted, work plays an important role in the lives of many people, both women and men (e.g. Hearn et al., 2008). Moving back and forth between different roles, such as spouse, parent, friend, employee, colleague, may be difficult for almost anyone (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek & Rosenthal, 1964). And for those whose work includes frequent travel abroad, balancing between different roles may be a more complex matter. Gender and parenthood are individual characteristics that have been found to be related to higher levels of work-to-family conflict (WFC) (Eby et al., 2005; Westman & Etzion, 2005). The second article of this dissertation concentrates on examining the direct and moderating effects of gender and parental status on the relationship between international business travel days and work-to-family conflict (WFC) among international business travellers.

Travelling has also been found to have negative effects on the partners of travellers (Nicholas & McDowall, 2012; Stewart & Donald, 2006; Westman et al., 2008). The conflicting effects of international business travel have mostly been studied from the traveller’s point of view. The partners’ experiences or couple-level effects have been overlooked. Therefore, in this study, the point of view of couples has been investigated in detail by interviewing both the IBTs but also their partners.

It is known that the blurred boundaries between private and working life are typical for those whose work involves international business travel and easily leads to challenges to keep balance between work and family (Bergbom, Vesala, Leppänen, Sainio & Mukala, 2011; Mäkelä, Saarenpää, Suutari & Wurtz, 2012;

Nicholas & McDowall, 2012). There is scarce research that concerns how travellers construct and manage the boundaries between work and family. The lack of research is quite surprising because work-family border management via the integration and segmentation of work and family domains (meaning the degree to which the aspects of work and family are kept separate) (Casper, Hauw & Wayne, 2013; Kreiner, 2006) has, for a long time, been considered to be an important factor affecting the work-family balance (Kreiner, 2006; Nippert-Eng, 1996).

Although literature related to the border management of IBTs was not found, Nicholas and McDowall (2012) have touched on the subject and found that the irregular nature of business travel renders it impossible to establish a clear division between ‘work-time’ owned by an employer and ‘leisure time’ owned by a traveller.

Travelling internationally for work affects the time use of travellers’ and relates to the extent an individual can apply his/her preference segment or integrate different life spheres. When one family member travels frequently and is unable to participate fully in family life, there is a high risk that travel also effects the work-family border management of the partner who is at home taking care alone of family-related issues, especially if there are children in the family. Therefore, this study aims to examine the issue in more detail by examining how international business travel affects the work-family borders of travellers and their partners.

Research on border management has mainly been quantitative. In the third article of this study, qualitative research methods are used to examine the border management of IBTs.

As can be seen from above, individuals may have different and multiple challenges when trying to combine work-related travel and family. However, there are people who manage to do it. When individuals encounter challenges, the effective use of coping strategies helps maintain physical and mental well-being (Lazarus, 1993).

Considered in the context of work and family, coping is a way to maintain a balance between these two life domains. In the case of IBTs’ travel and travel related stress, the impacts influence both partners and as well the family. This type of stress, affecting both partners, is defined as a dyadic stress and couples manage such stress through dyadic coping strategies (Bodenmann, 1997). IBT research has, to some extent, considered travel-related stress as a source of dyadic stress and identified the consequences of travel for personal life and partners (Nicholas &

McDowall, 2012; Stewart & Donald, 2006; Westman, Etzion & Chen, 2008).

However, there is no previous IBT research that uses the concept of dyadic stress or research conducted concerning how couples cope together with international

business travel related stress (Dimberg et al., 2002; Nicholas & McDowall, 2012).

In the fourth article, the study aims to fill the above-mentioned gaps in the research.

In summary, this particular dissertation focuses on work-family interactions of international business travellers. It constitutes an attempt to fill gaps in the IBT literature, firstly, by gathering and reviewing the existing IBT research relating to work-family. Secondly, this study aims to show the role of gender and parental status on the relationship between international business travel days and work-to-family conflict. Further, this study seeks to understand how travellers and their partners construct, manage, and negotiate the borders between work and family in order to avoid imbalance between these domains. To compose an extensive overview of the work-family interaction and improve our knowledge on these issues, the final aim is to examine the dyadic coping of international business travellers and their partners.