The Rise of the Global Nomad: How to Manage the New Professional in Order to Gain Recovery and Maximize Future Growth

A new cadre of global professionals are appearing who will drive the recovery and future growth of international organizations. This group of professionals are focused on a multi-cultural, people-centered way of doing business in developing countries. These professionals are not expats who fly out from a home base and then fly back again. They do not have a "home location." Instead, they move from assignment A to assignment B, C, and D over a period of years. 

Human capital consultant Jim Matthewman argues that these "Global Nomads" present new challenges for leadership and people management. The Nomads are unlikely to commit decades of loyalty to a single firm, and they will see their career as a set of opportunities and experiences rather than a path of grade progression. Matthewman describes how businesses must rethink their human resource practices to accommodate and take advantage of this class. New human resource systems will be people-based networks built on relationships rather than set structures with controlling lines of reporting. Matthewman's extensive experience working in the developing world offers multination organizations valuable insights into how they can attract and engage their future workforce.