MGMT 8003M Week 5 Citation Audit Example

Following a Famous Figure Back to Nothing: A Citation Audit of One Draft Section and Its Eleven References, Tracing a Claim About Expatriate Assignment Failure Through a Textbook to an Article With No Data

Student Name

Walden University

MGMT 8003M: Gateway to Doctoral Management Studies

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Following a Famous Figure Back to Nothing: A Citation Audit of One Draft Section and Its Eleven References, Tracing a Claim About Expatriate Assignment Failure Through a Textbook to an Article With No Data

The Section Audited

The section audited is two pages from my draft literature review on international assignments, with eleven references. For each claim, I located the cited source, read the passage it relied on and, where the trail led elsewhere, followed it to the original.

Audit Table

[after]

Five other claims were supported by the sources cited and are not shown.

Table 1

Citation Audit of the Draft Section

The Trail of the Expatriate Failure Figure

My draft cited a widely used textbook for the claim that 16 to 40 percent of expatriate assignments fail. The textbook cited an article from the early 1980s. That article, when I obtained it, reported a survey of firms about the reasons for assignment failure, but it did not report the high failure rates attributed to it; the figures appeared in its introduction as background, attributed to other sources that themselves gave no data.

Harzing (1995) traced exactly this problem and showed that the commonly cited high expatriate failure rates rested on very little empirical evidence, with many articles citing each other or citing sources that did not contain the figures. Harzing (2002) went further, analyzing citation errors in the literature on expatriate failure and showing how figures spread through chains of citation in which authors cited sources they had not read, or misreported what those sources said. My draft had joined the chain.

What I Changed

I removed the failure range and replaced it with a sentence stating that estimates of expatriate failure vary widely and that the high figures commonly cited lack a clear empirical basis, citing Harzing. The cost claim was removed. The training claim now notes variation in effects. The repatriation figure is now attributed to its consultancy source and described as from client firms, not as a general rate.

What the Audit Taught

An audit that checks only formatting would have passed this section. Its references were complete and correctly formatted. The problem was support. I will now read the original source for any figure I cite, or say that I am citing it secondhand. Lovitts (2005) argued that independent research demands habits coursework rarely requires, and checking sources at their origin is one of them.

Why Unsupported Figures Persist

Figures like the expatriate failure range persist because they are useful. They give an introduction urgency, they appear in textbooks that students trust, and checking them requires obtaining older articles that are often hard to find. Each author who repeats the figure adds apparent support, because a reader sees it cited many times. Harzing's work shows that repetition is not evidence. The audit was an exercise in refusing to treat repetition as evidence in my own writing.

A Rule for Future Drafts

For every number in a draft, I will record in a private log where I read it and whether I checked the original. Any figure I could not trace will be removed or labeled as reported by a secondary source.

Other Rows Worth Noting

Two other rows changed my draft. The training claim cited a meta-analysis that reported a positive average effect but considerable variation across studies; my sentence had said training improves adjustment, without qualification. It now says training is associated with better adjustment on average, with effects that vary by type of training and setting. The repatriation claim relied on a consultancy report surveying its own clients, a sample likely to include firms with active international programs. It is now attributed and described for what it is.

Limits

The audit covered one section; other sections may have similar problems.

References

Harzing, A.-W. (1995). The persistent myth of high expatriate failure rates. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 6(2), 457-474. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585199500000028

Harzing, A.-W. (2002). Are our referencing errors undermining our scholarship and credibility? The case of expatriate failure rates. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(1), 127-148. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.125

Lovitts, B. E. (2005). Being a good course-taker is not enough: A theoretical perspective on the transition to independent research. Studies in Higher Education, 30(2), 137-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070500043093