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Chapter 5 108 Table 5.11 and Figure 5.3 summarize the relative impact of different supportive agents. While some agents influenced all success criteria strongly (e.g., supervisors and organizations), others stimulated specific criteria in particular (e.g., spouses and adjustment and retention). In contrast, other social support had weak effects altogether (e.g., cross-cultural training) or had yet to be examined in relation to specific criteria (e.g., expatriate friends and performance, commitment, and retention). Taken together, our results display how different agents in expatriates’ social support network contribute differently to expatriate success. In the following section, we first discuss most important agents (i.e., organizations, supervisors, spouses) and specific avenues for future research, after which we turn to general implications for (future) research and practice. 5.6.1 Organizational Support Organizational support was of primary importance to all four criteria of expatriate success considered in this study. Figure 5.3 intuitively reflects this, with all forms of social support from the work-domain encircling the four success criteria and including several broad edges. Particularly expatriates’ commitment to their assignment relied considerably on their overall perception of organizational support – on whether he/she felt valued, listened to, and cared about by the organization. In relation to the other criteria, two remarkable relationship arose in relation to expatriates’ perceptions regarding specific bundles – or systems – of organizational practices. First, in line with its purpose, organizational involvement in adjustment processes related strongly to the cross-cultural adjustment expatriates reported. Here, the perceived bundle of adjustment-oriented practices seems more important than its individual parts, as the effects of, for instance, cross-cultural training and logistical support were significantly less substantial. Second, expatriates’ retention in the assignment was strongly related to the experienced career-oriented organizational support. Expatriation often requires personal sacrifices and, apparently, expatriates will only endure the associated challenges when their future career is looked after by the organization. Organizational support in terms of compensation and finances influenced all four criteria, but not a single one in particular. Although these results underline the criticality of perceived organizational support to assignment success, there are at least two areas that need elaboration. First, studies should assess the contribution of individual global mobility practices and how these practices interrelate. Practices such as cross-cultural training could only be effective when bundled with, for instance, an in-country socialization to apply these newly acquired cross-cultural skills. Second, in light of the dual psychological contract expatriates have with their parent and subsidiary organizations (Gregersen & Black, 1992), it would be interesting to examine what types of support and which specific practices expatriates expect from each organization respectively. 5.6.2 Supervisor Support Supervisory support was another salient antecedent of expatriate success that lies in the work domain. Its strong relationship to expatriates’ adjustment, commitment, performance, and retention suggests that establishing high-quality leader-member relations should a top priority of sending and hosting organizations. On the one hand,