Beyond cultural learning: the “missing group” framework and identity transformation in global mobility

Purpose This study advances the missing group framework to theorize identity transformation among multinational corporation (MNC) employees. It challenges the assumption that identity change is exclusively an agentic byproduct of cultural learning, arguing instead that it is a structurally induced response to the loss of stable group anchoring. Design/methodology/approach The study integrates Alfred Schutz's phenomenology of the lifeworld with relational agency theory and institutional boundary work. It utilizes a qualitative, meta-analytical synthesis of global mobility literature across sociology, international management and migration studies. Findings Identity destabilization is a structural crisis that precedes behavioral adaptation. This crisis emerges from missing group conditions – a liminal zone of non-belonging where prior organizational and professional identities lose relational effectiveness. Within MNC contexts, institutional contingencies such as language, religion and race boundaries act as macro-level filters that intensify this phenomenological disruption. Originality/value The study identifies the missing group as a distinct theoretical condition rather than a psychological failure. It provides a process-oriented explanation for why highly skilled executives and corporate professionals experience chronic liminality and a loss of agency despite possessing high objective competence and cultural intelligence.