Of Discovery and Dread: The Importance of Work Challenges for International Business Travelers’ Thriving and Global Role Turnover Intentions

As frequent travel across international borders has become common for an ever‐increasing number of workers, it is essential to understand what helps these international business travelers (IBTs) thrive and embrace their global work responsibilities. This study's purpose is to examine the role of developmental opportunities (i.e., work role challenges) in helping IBTs see frequent travel as a predominantly beneficial experience. By integrating two theories of motivation—conservation of resources theory and the challenge‐hindrance demands framework—I build a moderated mediation model of IBTs’ intent to cease their global work responsibilities (i.e., global role turnover intentions). Using latent moderated structural equation modeling (LMS) I test the model on a sample of 204 IBTs collected at two time‐points. Results show that, through the psychological state of thriving at work, travel frequency has a negative indirect association with IBTs’ global role turnover intentions when IBTs’ work roles are challenging and a positive association when their work lacks challenge. This is primarily the case regarding the challenge of being responsible for others at work. The novelty of IBTs’ work tasks is also a salient challenge but to a lesser extent. This study contributes to literatures on global work, work role design, and thriving.