The changing career context in recent years makes multiple developers more important and necessary than a single best mentor (Kram & Higgins, 2009). However, little is known regarding the role of developmental networks in expatriates' ongoing development and their expatriation success.;This study took an inductive approach, with in-depth interviews with 64 expatriates in Singapore and China. The major findings focused upon three aspects. First, the results showed that expatriates draw career and psychosocial support from different sources, including their company and non-company colleagues, friends, and family members. Three cross-cultural transition support functions were identified, including "cultural guidance", "home linkage", and "facilitating transition".;Second, the qualitative and quantitative results suggested that individual (e.g., developmental stage and gender), dyadic (e.g., dyadic similarities and differences), and contextual factors (e.g., the organizational developmental culture) influence the expatriates' developmental network structure, content, and/or tie quality.;Third, the study revealed that a smaller, diversified, host-country-based, intra-extra-organizational-balanced, and career-psychosocial-support-balanced network contributes to relocation satisfaction, perceived learning and network helpfulness, and expatriation adjustment.;The main findings offer fresh insights into the mentoring and developmental networks literature and the expatriate research. The study expands the boundary of developmental relationships into extended developmental networks in which developmental alters (i.e., individuals whom the focal person perceives as important in his/her career and personal development) can be distant, inactive, negative, and sporadic. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of person-network fit, or the fit between what expatriates need and what they can get out of their developmental networks, in securing desired individual and organizational outcomes. A conceptual model about expatriates' developmental networks through the fit perspective was developed, with propositions for future empirical studies.;The study has important practical implications. For global companies, it is important for them to cultivate a supportive environment that facilitates developmental relationship building. For individuals, they need to diversify the different types of developers in their networks, and continuously reassess their individual needs and/or network structures to maintain the person-network fit.
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