ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we selectively reviewed research on international students, one of the most frequently studied groups of sojourners. Persons going abroad for commercial and business reasons constitute another major group of short-term cross-cultural travellers. These are individuals who have usually been sent by their employers to work and live temporarily in countries where the organisation is conducting business through a branch, a subsidiary, or a joint venture structure. Although each of these arrangements differs in various significant ways, from the perspective of the sojourner the psychological problems are very similar. Their time abroad will have a finite limit, after which they will return home; they will have clear work-related assignments that they are expected to accomplish; they will have to be able to interact successfully with their local counterparts to achieve their goals; they and their families, if they have any, will experience the dislocation associated with exposure to unfamiliar cultural settings; and their career path may be affected, positively or negatively, by choosing or agreeing to undertake service abroad.
