Expatriate adjustment from the inside out: an autoethnographic account

This paper identifies some of the dynamics of expatriate adjustment using an autoethnographic account of situations experienced by the first author during her first year of work at a financial services company in Hong Kong. Success in this cross-cultural assignment is dependent on the expatriate's ability to adjust to and master the new culture. Our theoretical analysis of the autoethnographic account suggests that culture shock may be a discontinuous process. Further, the analysis suggests that cultural acceptance can play a critical role in expatriate adjustment.     

You're from where? The influence of distance factors on New Zealand expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment

This study empirically tests the influence of various distance factors on expatriate cross-cultural adjustment. Expatriate perceptions of home and host country differences, objective measures of distance and the accuracy of expatriate evaluations of host country distance were compared as predictors of expatriate adjustment difficulty in the host country. The results revealed that perceived distance, objective cultural distance and the expatriate's perceptual inaccuracy had a significant effect on expatriate adjustment difficulty for one's first assignment. However, on subsequent assignments all measures of distance were significant. Adjustment became more difficult as perceptual accuracy improved. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The relationship between expatriates' personality traits and their adjustment to international assignments

This study investigates the relationship between personality traits of expatriates and their adjustment to international assignments. We focused in particular on the Big Five personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. We sampled eighty-three US expatriates in Taiwan and found statistically significant relationships between expatriate adjustment and three personality traits in theoretically reasonable directions. Specifically, our results showed that a US expatriate's general living adjustment in Taiwan is positively related to his or her degree of extroversion and openness to experience. We found that extroversion and agreeableness are both positively related to interaction adjustment (i.e. relationships with local people). Furthermore, a US expatriate's work adjustment is positively related to his or her openness to experience. Unlike prior research on expatriate adjustment, we have examined multiple traits rooted in personality theory, and we have derived hypotheses that are specific to a Chinese context.     

A model for the influence of social interaction and social support on female expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment

This paper offers a model to describe the way in which female expatriates develop relationships and utilize those relationships to become cross-culturally adjusted. This model includes three predictive components affecting cross-cultural adjustment. The first includes the factors affecting whether a woman is able to form relationships on the expatriate assignment. These antecedents can include the female expatriate's personality, the cultural norms towards women, her language skills and the availability of possible opportunities for interaction. The second component includes the various sources of social interaction and social support (e.g. family members, and host national colleagues). The third component describes the nature of a female expatriate's social interaction and social support (e.g. emotional, informational and instrumental). Practical considerations for multinational organizations sending female expatriates are offered.     

A different perspective of expatriate management

Based on a total of 243 papers and theses published in Taiwan and the West, this study provides a different perspective on expatriation management. The investigation includes selection criteria, staffing, training, the female expatriate, the expatriate spouse, and international adjustment. Research reveals that there are similar core concerns, such as an expatriate's professional knowledge, personality, adaptability, and international adjustment. Context-specific concerns also emerge. Taiwanese companies care more about expatriates' personal skills and willpower compared to the West, where companies care more about an expatriate's past performance, adaptability, and spousal adjustment. As more and more resource conscious SMEs are moving to compete in the international arena, attending to their international management needs becomes a pressing issue. This study provides the form, as well as the essence of Taiwanese expatriation management, especially with FDIs based in Taiwan playing a crucial role in the recent economic development of Asia. Taiwan's past successful international expansion certified the value of its expatriation management, particularly under severe resource constraints. The findings of this study may have policy and practical implications for relevant parties and emerging economies.     

The ‘expat factor’: the influence of working time on women's decisions to undertake international assignments in the oil and gas industry

This article examines the effect of working time on women's willingness to go on expatriate assignments in the oil and gas exploration and production sector. The research draws upon an analysis of two case study firms' international assignment and working time policies, semi-structured interviews with 14 human resource staff responsible for policy design and implementation, and a survey of the views of 71 women expatriates, supported by in-depth interviews with 26 of the survey respondents. The research identifies an ‘expat factor’: assignees state that long hours are inherent in expatriation and necessary to further their careers. However, in practice, working time is not excessive and flexible working practices are utilised. Hours of work have little effect on women's decisions to undertake long-term assignments but alternatives such as short-term and commuter assignments are unpopular as their working patterns are disruptive to family life. This article contributes to theory development by linking two discrete frameworks that explain women's career choices when they strive to balance their career goals with their families and by identifying a career compromise threshold when expatriation is rejected in favour of family considerations. A model is proposed to link working time/patterns to women's international assignment participation.     

Social capital and cultural adjustment of international assignees in NGOs: do support networks really matter?

International assignees face cultural adjustment challenges in their host countries in work and nonwork situations. At the same time, social capital theory suggests that individuals can access and mobilize resources from their social networks. We explore the use of social networks by international assignees from a non-governmental organization in their cross-cultural adjustment to the host country. Specifically, we are interested in the individuals who directly provided support to the expatriate, a network that we term the ‘current assignment support network’. We focus on the size, type and frequency of contact of the international assignee's support network, and investigate to what extent these variables can predict overall cultural adjustment to the host country, or separate dimensions of cultural adjustment such as interaction adjustment, general adjustment and work adjustment. Our findings indicate that certain characteristics of the international assignee's current assignment support network do impact their cultural adjustment to the host country, but that the effects are moderated by whether the assignee has prior international experience.     

Expatriate adjustment as a multifaceted phenomenon: individual and organizational level predictors

A conceptual model is proposed that identifies critical antecedents of expatriate adjustment. Adjustment is conceptualized as the degree of fit between the expatriate manager and the environment, both work and socio-cultural. Adjustment is marked by both reduced conflict and increased effectiveness. As a multidimensional phenomenon, expatriate adjustment can be identified in psychological, socio-cultural and work domains. The model predicts that psychological and socio-cultural adjustment are the most immediate predictors of work adjustment. In this paper, it is asserted that the success of the expatriation process depends not only on the expatriate manager's competencies and skills, but also on organizational (both parent-company and local-unit) support and assistance prior to and during the assignment. Various international human resource management models are utilized to examine the organizational level antecedents of expatriate adjustment. Managerial resourcefulness, acculturation attitudes, personality dimensions and coping strategies are discussed in relation to individual predictors, whereas MNCs' international structure, value orientation, organizational life-cycle, diversity training, strategic planning and socialization are proposed as organizational predictors of expatriate adjustment.     

Career capital during international work experiences: contrasting self-initiated expatriate experiences and assigned expatriation

This article explores the career capital of expatriates, differentiating between self-initiated expatriates (SEs) and company assigned expatriates (AEs). Previous research has considered issues such as individual background variables, employer and task variables, motives, compensation, and repatriation. The present study adds new perspectives related to the development of career capital. The article uses a survey of more than 200 Finnish expatriates to explore these concepts in relation to international work experiences; finding considerable similarities and some differences in the development of career capital of those sent on an expatriate assignment by an organization, and those having a self-initiated expatriate experience.     

The impact of on-site mentoring on expatriate socialization: a structural equation modelling approach

While the literature on expatriate adjustment has focused on the importance of back-home mentors and their instrumentality for future career advancement, this research explores the importance of on-site mentors for the effective socialization of expatriates into their current overseas assignments. Using a sample of 179 expatriates located in nineteen countries, this paper presents a structural equation model illustrating the relationships among mentoring received, expatriate socialization and socialization outcomes. Amount of mentoring received positively impacts on expatriate socialization, which in turn positively influences job attitudes, intention to finish the expatriate assignment and expatriate understanding of global business issues. Using Hofstede's typology of national cultures, this research also suggests that the international context of the overseas assignment affects how much on-site mentoring expatriates receive. Specifically, expatriates are more likely to receive mentoring in small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance and individualistic cultures.     

An empirical test of a correspondence model of expatriate managers' work adjustment

We develop and empirically test a model of expatriate managers' work adjustment. In this model we relate the fit between work-related abilities and needs of expatriate managers as well as the fit between the job requirements of, and incentives associated with, an international assignment to the level of expatriate managers' work adjustment. We test this model with data gathered by means of an electronic survey among 118 German expatriate managers. The empirical findings largely support our theoretical model. The paper enhances our understanding of expatriate managers' work adjustment and its antecedents and contributes to the theoretical and empirical basis of research into expatriate management.     

A Psychological Contract Perspective of Expatriate Failure

The expatriate literature needs to move beyond maladjustment as a primary reason for expatriate failure. This article draws on the psychological contract as a valuable lens to observe changes in expatriate behavior that may determine expatriate success or failure on international assignments. Prior research on the expatriate psychological contract has focused solely on an expatriate's social exchange relationship with the assigning parent company. This article offers a dual‐foci perspective of the expatriate psychological contract and suggests that expatriates’ perceptions of psychological contract breach arise from two sources—the assigning parent company and the receiving host company. The conceptualization of breach with dual foci forms the basis for the proposed model of expatriate failure. The model proposes that differences in expatriates’ contexts will influence their likelihood of perceiving breach and that breach, once perceived, will affect expatriate behavior through its influence on sense‐making, affect, conation, and attitudes. The propositions developed in this article provide a foundation for future theorizing and empirical work on expatriate cognitions of psychological contract breach. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Career advancement in large organizations in Europe and the United States: do international assignments add value?

We look at the relationship between the number of assignments, the length of international assignment experience, the type of employer commissioning the international assignment, the individual's career stage at the first assignment, and career advancement: the time that the executives took to be appointed to the CEO position from the start of their career. Our sample of 1001 chief executives, based in 23 countries and affiliated with the 500 largest corporations in Europe and the 500 largest in the United States, allows us to examine important individual- and organization-level contingencies that affect the relationship between international assignment experience and career advancement. We find that international experience slows the executives' ascent to the top, longer assignments and a larger number of assignments being detrimental to their speed of ascent to top corporate positions. Further, international assignments at corporations other than the CEOs' current employer and assignments taken at later stages of executives' careers damage career advancement.     

Managing global talent: solving the spousal adjustment problem

Spousal adjustment issues, increasingly career related, are a major reason for expatriate assignment failure. Employer-provided spousal assistance programs have been proposed to address this situation. This field study of 238 expatriate spouses found that those who experience a severe disruption or cessation of employment have significantly lower interaction adjustment to the expatriate experience than others. For spouses with a career orientation to work, females had higher cultural and interactional adjustment than males. Only 18% of the spouses received employer-provided career assistance, and there was no significant difference in adjustment between spouses who received assistance and those who did not. Interviews with 100 spouses indicated that their greatest needs are for networking information to assist with their job search and for a ‘go to’ person for practical settling-in assistance.     

Exploring career advantages of highly skilled migrants: a study of Indian academics in the UK

We draw on Bourdieu's theory of practice to examine a group of Indian academics' accounts of their careers in a research-intensive university. Using the concepts of habitus and capital, we argue that international staff are very well placed to craft a career in the increasingly market driven UK academic context, challenging the discourse of disadvantage associated with the careers of international academics as well as other highly skilled migrants. Central in our analysis is the transferability of capitals between different fields and the importance of understanding capital as part of the multiple fields that agents belong to. However, drawing attention to the changing rules of the research-intensive university system, we also suggest that these academics' career trajectory may not continue to yield positive results.     

An empirically-derived multidimensional measure of expatriate success: reconciling the discord

This paper examines the discord surrounding how expatriate success, or effectiveness, is defined. We review the many ways that success has been conceptualized and then seek to reconcile these differences by presenting a multidimensional measure of success, based on data collected from 118 expatriate respondents worldwide. A series of factor analyses, along with reliability and item analyses yielded nine measurement scales which included cultural adjustment, work-related adjustment, career development, HQ-subsidiary coordination, assignment completion, professional/skill development, shaping and controlling the subsidiary, satisfaction and overall assignment effectiveness. The process by which these scales were developed is described in the paper and all items and scale reliabilities are presented.     

Equal opportunity? Women's managerial careers in governmental organizations in China

There is very limited knowledge about women's management careers in China. This paper examines the opportunities for and barriers to women's careers in China, using governmental organizations as an example in which the State is not only the advocate of equal opportunity policies but also, in practice, the gatekeeper. One of the greatest disparities between male and female occupational patterns in China is in the sphere of government employment where only one in five employees is female. The aim of this paper is to understand the Chinese characteristics of gender inequality in management careers. In looking at the factors that influence women's upward mobility, the intention is to identify the barriers to the appointment of women to top jobs. Some barriers will be unique to governmental organizations and so will require special attention if they are to be eradicated. However, women also face more general barriers to success which transcend differences of occupational sector or society. It is hoped that this paper will lead to a greater understanding of how career barriers for women in China may resemble and differ from those faced by their counterparts in the West.     

Call for papers: Special Issue of International Journal of HRM

Though women remain under-represented among expatriate managers due to a range of organisational and cultural barriers in selection and individual relocation concerns, they have begun to pursue alternative routes towards a global career such as frequent travel and undertaking domestic positions with international development and community development responsibilities. In this paper, we explore the perceptions that Middle Eastern and North American women have of traditional and new trajectories in global work and careers and conclude that increased flexibility allows women to pursue global development opportunities differently throughout their lifetime careers, permitting them to adapt to work–life circumstances. Thus, our research provides new insights into the nature and dynamic of the nature of women's global work and careers.     

Career coordination strategies among dual career expatriate couples

The combination of two trends common in working life – international work and a dual career situation – is challenging for both genders. In order to cope with the situation, international dual career couples have to be able to coordinate their careers. The purpose of this article is to identify how dual career expatriates view their career coordination strategies with their partners, and how these views differ between the genders. Semi-structured interviews were carried out among 39 expatriates on assignment who had a partner working, at least before the assignment. Our findings identify three career coordination strategies applied by dual career couples, and confirm gender plays an essential role in the formation of those strategies. Male expatriates predominated among the group adopting a hierarchical strategy and female expatriates predominated among the group adopting an egalitarian and a loose coordination strategy. Strategies also seemed prone to change over time. Companies should pay attention to both the career development of the partner and the relationship coping skills of the couple to maximize the chances of dual career expatriate assignments being successful.     

A test of the relationship between person–environment fit and cross-cultural adjustment among self-initiated expatriates

Understanding an expatriate's cross-cultural adjustment to the various aspects of their host environment and organization has been a focal point of research for several decades. Person–environment (PE) fit refers to the degree of fit an individual has with various dimensions of their host environment, and past research suggests that successful PE fit positively influences adjustment. However, the strength of these relationships remains under-researched. Drawing upon data gathered from 369 self-initiated expatriate doctors working in Ireland, we examine the strength of the relationship between PE fit and cross-cultural adjustment. Our results suggest that dimensions of PE fit influence cross-cultural adjustment to varying degrees. Thus, person–job needs-supplies fit was the only fit dimension to influence interaction adjustment, while person–job demands abilities influenced both work adjustment and, to a lesser extent, interaction adjustment. Person–organization fit influenced work adjustment, while person–supervisor fit had no relationship with adjustment. These findings have implications for organizations when recruiting and supporting self-initiated expatriates.