Dr Heidi Wechtler

Lecturer

Newcastle Business School

Email:heidi.wechtler@newcastle.edu.au

Career Summary

Biography

I am a dedicated teacher, committed researcher with roots in Newcastle, and freshly recruited as a lecturer by the Newcastle Business School. As a PhD student at the Macquarie University and then as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of New South Wales, I focused my researched on a variety of human resources topics, including: hiring, employee turnover, career management, expatriation, and diversity management.

I am also a statistician by training and have participated in the Academy of Management’s “Meet the Experts” sessions on quantitative methods (part of the Research Method Division). I worked as a statistical research engineer at the Sorbonne Business School in Paris for 7 years. There, I taught well-received courses on quantitative and mixed methods in the Research Masters and Doctoral Program of the Sorbonne Business School.

My work has appeared in outlets such as Contemporary Accounting Research (A*), in Journal of World Business (A), International Business Review (A), or Management International Review (A).

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, Macquarie University
Master of Applied Economic & Statistical Eng, Université Evry Val d'Essonne - France

Keywords

Career
Expatriation
Gender
HRM
International HRM
Migrants
Overqualification
Turnover

Languages

French (Mother)

Fields of Research

Code	Description	Percentage
150305	Human Resources Management	70
150308	International Business	15
010401	Applied Statistics	15

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title	Organisation / Department
Casual Academic	University of Newcastle School of Electrical Engineering and Computing Australia
Lecturer	University of Newcastle Newcastle Business School Australia

Teaching

Code	Course	Role	Duration
GMBA6007	Managing across cultures Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle This course draws on research from different disciplines to examine how cultural and institutional differences may impact business relationships, communication, management and negotiations. Students will gain an understanding of the importance of the cultural context, values, norms and institutions for management and business operations in developing, transition and developed economies. In this course students will take a highly experiential approach to learning, with students developing cross-cultural communication, management and negotiation skills through in-class exercises, self-assessment and group assessment exercises.	Lecturer	25/02/2019 - 30/06/2019
GSBS6007	Management HR in International Organisations Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle In a global marketplace where "borderless organisations" are quickly becoming the norm, employees have an increasingly important role in the cultivation of company capability. This course examines the management of people in organisations across different countries and cultures. The primary aim is to discriminate the varying roles and functions of the various HRM activities within an international context. The course considers the challenges of managing expatriates in home and host countries, in the context of multinational and transnational corporations as well as other types of international organisations. In doing so, it draws on a cross-section of the literature in human resource management, organisational behaviour and comparative management.	Lecturer	4/02/2019 - 19/05/2019

Edit

Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.

Journal article (5 outputs)

Year

Citation

Altmetrics

Link

2018

Lindblom A, Lindblom T, Lehtonen MJ, Wechtler H, 'A study on country images, destination beliefs, and travel intentions: A structural equation model approach', International Journal of Tourism Research, 20 1-10 (2018)

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This study explores how individuals' cognitive and affective country images influence destination beliefs, and how these beliefs are associated with individuals' travel intentions. With the product country image and tourism destination image literature, we develop four hypotheses that are tested using structural equation modeling. We use a sample of 605 Japanese respondents. Our results indicate that the cognitive country image is positively associated with the affective country image. The findings suggest that both the affective and cognitive country images are positively related to the destination beliefs, and the destination beliefs are positively associated with the travel intentions.

DOI	10.1002/jtr.2148
Citations	Scopus - 3

2018

Wechtler H, '¿Life if elsewhere¿: A diary study of female self-initiated expatriates¿ motivations to work abroad', Career Development International, 23 291-311 (2018)

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives of female childless self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in deciding to work abroad, so far under-researched. Design/methodology/approach: The study departs from prior research in using a new methodological approach, i.e. the analysis of online diaries (blogs) to explore the motives of a specific population to relocate. Findings: The emergent model of motivations is based upon four main dimensions that emerged from the socially constructed experience of these single childless female SIEs: escape as main motivation, confrontation to reality, identity reconstruction and purpose of expatriation. Originality/value: The findings reveal new elements of motivations to move abroad such as the complete absence of the notion of career from the blog posts, replaced, however, by a feminist and existentialist reflection.

DOI	10.1108/CDI-06-2017-0103

2017

Wechtler H, Koveshnikov A, Dejoux C, 'Career Anchors and Cross-Cultural Adjustment Among Expatriates in a Non-Profit Organization', Management International Review, 57 277-305 (2017)

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Based on a sample of 189 expatriate managers working for a non-profit organization (NPO), we pursue two objectives in this paper. First, we address the lack of knowledge on expatriates working in the non-profit sector by exploring their dominant career anchors. Our analysis reveals that the dominant anchors are internationalism, dedication to a cause, and lifestyle. Second, we draw on person-environment fit theory to theorize and test the previously unexplored linkages between expatriates¿ career anchors and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA). Our analysis shows that different career anchors are positively associated with different dimensions of CCA: autonomy, security, dedication to a cause, and pure challenge with general living adjustment; dedication to a cause, pure challenge, and internationalism with interactional adjustment; and functional competence, managerial competence, pure challenge, and internationalism with work adjustment. Overall, the study is one of the first attempts to explore career anchors and their linkages to CCA among expatriates in NPOs.

DOI	10.1007/s11575-016-0307-6
Citations	Scopus - 4

2015

Wechtler H, Koveshnikov A, Dejoux C, 'Just like a fine wine? Age, emotional intelligence, and cross-cultural adjustment', International Business Review, 24 409-418 (2015)

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. In this study, we use socioemotional selectivity theory to shed light on the role of expatriates' age in the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates on assignment. We test our hypotheses using hierarchical regression models and a sample of 254 French expatriate managers. Our analysis reveals a number of interesting findings. First, we find that age is a facilitator of regulation and utilization of emotions on general living adjustment and of regulation of emotions on interactional adjustment. Second, our complementary analyses show that expatriates' prior expatriation experience affects the relationship between EI and CCA differently and less prominently than age. Overall, our analysis is one of the first attempts to provide a more detailed theoretical understanding of the relationships between age, expatriation experience, EI and CCA in the context of expatriation.

DOI	10.1016/j.ibusrev.2014.09.002
Citations	Scopus - 8

2014

Koveshnikov A, Wechtler H, Dejoux C, 'Cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates: The role of emotional intelligence and gender', Journal of World Business, 49 362-371 (2014)

The study examines the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates on international assignments. Based on a sample of 269 French expatria... [more]

The study examines the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates on international assignments. Based on a sample of 269 French expatriates operating in 133 countries, our analysis finds a significant and positive relationship between EI and expatriates' general living, interactional and work-related CCA. Additionally, it shows that cultural similarity only facilitates general living adjustment and not interactional or work adjustments. Finally, our analysis reveals an interesting interaction effect between gender and the ability to appraise and express emotions. the influence of the latter on all three dimensions of CCA tends to be slightly stronger for male than female expatriates. The study offers important practical implications for organizations concerning the identification and development of successful expatriates. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DOI	10.1016/j.jwb.2013.07.001
Citations	Scopus - 26

Show 2 more journal articles

Edit

Research Supervision

Number of supervisions

Completed0

Current1

Current Supervision

Commenced	Level of Study	Research Title	Program	Supervisor Type
2018	PhD	Graduate employability in accounting: the case of Kuwaiti universities	Accounting, The University of Newcastle, NSW	Principal Supervisor

Edit